Zortec Utility Billing Common Issues AR

Zortec Utility Billing

Common Issues

AR Out of Balance 1. Check for any unprocessed adjustment packets. From the UB Main menu select option 3 Cash Receipts, 4 Packet Control. Look for any packets that start with "AJ". Adjustments hit the customer's account and AR immediately. The entries do not appear on the Daily Transactions Report until the packet is processed and Cash Recap updated. 2. Check to make sure the Cash Recap has been updated. From the UB Main menu 3 Cash Receipts, 9 Cash Recap, Print Report Only, answer Y. If the system allows you to enter a printer number, there are transactions that have not been processed. You will need to run this option again and answer N to Print Report Only. If you get the error "Cash Recap file cannot be opened--try again later" there are no unprocessed transactions in the file. After running this option reprint 10 Daily Transaction Report.

AR Out of Balance-con’t 3. You can 'look' for the amount you are off. From the UB Main menu select option 52 Utilities, 1 General Utilities, 2 Find Specific Transaction Amounts. Enter the transaction year, date range and amount you are out of balance by as a positive and a negative number. If there any transactions that match this amount, they will print on the report. Research these accounts for possible record locks or other problems. Records locks are caused when an account is pulled up on two different screens and a transaction is posted to that account. For example, you are entering an adjustment to XYZ Account and another user has this account pulled up. Or you are processing packets or updating billing during the day and a user has one of the accounts with a transaction to be posted pulled up. One way to avoid record locks is to process packets and update billing in Night Process. 4. If you still cannot find the problem or it does not correct itself the following day, please call the support center. The sooner we know about the problem the better chance we have of finding and correcting it.

Problems with In-Process Amounts The In-Process amount field is found on screen 1 of Customer Inquiry. This field displays all pending transactions for payments, balance transfers, AR refunds and AR Journal Entries. It is an information only field. The only UB programs that ‘look’ at this field are the Delinquent Account programs. This field is cleared when either the POS Receipting sessions or the UB Cash Receipt packets are processed and Cleanup Database runs. There are times when this field will display an ‘incorrect’ amount, i. e. the in-process amount is doubled. Possible causes are the payment was entered twice, the payment was voided and re-entered in POS, or an additional payment exists in UB or POS.

Cash Receipt Packet in Use Error • You try to print or process a packet and receive the error ‘Packet is in Use – Please try later’. • If you are sure no one is using the packet in question, from the Utility Billing main menu select option 3 Cash Receipts, 20 Rebuild Packet Control. • Type the packet name and enter. • You will see ‘This Packet Is In Use – Rebuild and Reset? ’ Type Y and press enter. • F 9 until you see ‘Packet Control has been successfully rebuilt’.

Service Order Closing Errors • • You try to close service orders and get the following errors: ‘The account is in the billing process and cannot be changed—update later. ’ Or ‘The account is in the reading process and cannot be changed—update later. ’ These errors are caused by the account being in either the reading process (handheld file has been created or manual reading enter) or the route is in the bill calculation process. If the service order must be completed before the account can be billed, you will need change the ‘READ-NOT-BILLED’ flag. From the main UB menu select 52 Utilities, 3 Reading/Billing Utilities, 1 Clear READ-NOT-BILLED Flag. Answer Y to Individual Account. Enter the account number and change the number in the ‘Read-Not-Billed’ field to 0 (zero). Try to close the service order again. If you still get errors you need to check in Office Manger, Route Control, Update. If the question ‘Book Being Billed’ is set to Y change this to N, complete the order then change it back to Y.

Billing Update Errors • The Update Accounts option cannot be ran until the billing register has been printed and all bills have been printed, including any custom bills. • The Bill Printed Exception Report must also be printed before the Update Accounts option can be ran. This option is used to check the flags on the accounts to make sure that the register and bills have been printed. Each account is flagged according to the options ran for it. • To run the report to be sure that the register has printed and all bills have been printed, use the Bill Printed Code NP. This is the default so just press F 9 to print the report. Any accounts not properly coded will print on the report. If all accounts have been printed, a message “All bills have been printed: Edit has been passed. ” prints on the report and the billing can be updated.

Billing Update Errors-con’t • • • When the billing register is printed, the first byte of the code on the Bill Printed Exception Report prints an R which means Printed on Register. If the billing register has not been printed, the first byte of the code prints an *. If bills have not been printed, the second byte of the code on the report prints an *. Below is the list of error codes: – R*-Printed on register and bill not printed. – R 1 -Printed on register and bill printed using Print Bills or Print Bills-Forms option. – R 2 -Printed on register and bill printed using Print Single Bill options. – R 3 -Printed on register and bill printed using the Print Custom Bills option. – R 4 -Printed on register and bill printed using the Print Single Custom Bill option. – RZ-Printed on register and bill not printed because zero bill amount and zero bills are not printed. – *1 -Not printed on register and bill printed using Print Bills or Print Bills-Forms option. – *2 -Not printed on register and bill printed using Print Single Bill options. – *3 -Not printed on register and bill printed using the Print Custom Bills option. – *4 -Not printed on register and bill printed using the Print Single Custom Bill option

Billing Update Errors-con’t • If the Update Accounts option is selected before the Bill Printed Exception Report has been ran, the message “Error: [BILL PRINTED EXCEPTION Hasn't Been Run - Aborting: ]< >” is displayed and bills cannot be updated. Print the report then try updating bills again. • If the Update Accounts option is selected before the billing register has been printed or the bills have been printed, the message “Error: [All Bills have NOT been PRINTED - Aborting: ]< >” is displayed and the bills cannot be updated. • If the Update Accounts option is ran and stops before the update is complete, when the Update Accounts option is selected again, an error “Update Program Began But Didn’t Finish-Aborting” displays and the user cannot run the update option again. Support must be contacted to correct the problem and finish the update.

We strongly suggest that you run the following options: • In Meter Reading, Exception Edit Report. This report changes the Skip Next Bill flags on screen 2 and 5. It will also fix the ‘hidden read dates’ that print on the bills. Answer the question ‘Fix Problems with Service Dates Y’. • Run Cleanup Database and Rebuild the alt keys nightly. This can be done through Night Process. If it cannot be done nightly, please run it weekly. • If you have problems with Night Process not completing or hanging up on any options, especially Bill Update, PLEASE DO NOT APPTEMPT TO RESTART IT. Call support and let the receptionist now it is an emergency.

New and Improved

E-billing Screen 18 has been added to the Customer Inquiry for email addresses. When programming is complete, you will have the option of e-billing customers. A “Y” will e-bill the account. A “N” will be for information purposes only. Updates to this screen are made via File Maintenance.

Memo Deposits Non-monetary deposits can now be entered in the system. No packet or transactions is created for the entry, but it does appear on the deposit screen 7 in Customer Inquiry. You can also print the Deposit report for Memo only entries.

Customer Profiles A new subsystem under File Maintenance called Customer Profiles was created to allow grouping UB accounts by a customer # under one primary profile record including a summary of the AR due on all linked accounts, combined transactions and billing information, etc. This can also be used when creating new service orders to have the information from the customer profile record pulled into the service order.

Combined AR total for all accounts.

AR totals by Service

Transactions for all accounts sorted by date

Accounts for this Customer #

Bill Calculation For TVA sites, if the Wholesale Rate Tables are not defined for the billing period, you see the error message below. In the past, you were able to press Enter and the calculation continued. This caused the electric accounts to be calculated and billed without the TVA Fuel Cost Adjustment charge. The program has been updated and will abort the calculation process if the Wholesale Rate Table is not defined.

Mail File Report A new program was added to the Billing Menu named Mail File Report to read the File created by the Build Mailing Service File option and print the data including field headings so it can be verified before sending the file to the printing company. This option offers an account number range to include as well as the number of records to include. The Mail File Name on the screen must be changed to match the name specified when the file is built. The Build Mailing Service File option must be ran before using this option.

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Delinquent Notices (Form) The Delinquent Notices (Form) option has been updated to include a Starting Account number. This works the same way as the Starting Account number when printing bills.

Disconnect Orders/Cut off Listing The Cutoff Listing and Cutoff Subsystem were updated to accept a cycle of 99 then prompt the user for individual routes to print. This allows sites to run the cutoff list for selected routes rather than just entire cycles.

Write off Bad Debts Write Off Bad Debts (Mass) was updated to exclude accounts that have a payment in process even if the payment is a partial payment. This eliminated the problem of accounts being written off when customers are paying on them.

AR History Data Several new options were added to the Delinquent Accounts menu for AR History. These options work with the Record AR History option under Period End Process. The Record AR History option will create a file of the AR balances as of the date it is ran. This is a valuable tool for Support in helping track down problem record locks and other out of balance issues. We strongly recommend this option be added to your month end and fiscal year end steps. This will be very useful if you need to reprint the AR Detail for your auditors.

Delinquent Accounts Menu

Mass Create Service Orders A new option has been added to the Service Order Entry screen to allow the mass creation of several accounts with the same basic information. This is very useful when setting a new subdivision. You will key in the name/mailing address/contact information to be used for all accounts you are entering. Then you will be prompted to enter the service information. Keep in mind all accounts will be created with the same services/rate codes/sales tax codes. Next you will enter the individual addresses. At the end of each address entry you have the option to print the service order or hold it and print them all that the same time.

Mass Meter Changes Two new programs have been created for mass meter change outs. The export program is designed to create a CSV file of customer data from the Utility Billing System to be used by another program (3 rd party) for mass meter changes. The import program is designed to import a CSV file from the 3 rd party software and update the accounts in the Utility Billing System with the new meter information.

Change Log Billing Items Report This option was added to the Meter Reading Menu. This report pulls from the change log file created using the EE 1340 program. Auditing must be turned on so this process requires daily/weekly attention by someone at the customer site to manage the files and keep them from growing too large for the disk space available. This is useful when checking for unauthorized access or changes to data or changes to files that should not have been changed. This report can be printed daily to review the report and make notes of exceptions. The auditors will find this useful. The change log file is an easy way to see what the auditing process is logging. It can be used for any application that offers auditing.

Change Log Billing Items Report-con’t This program is hardcoded to report changes made to data on the UBMAST, UBMETR, UBDEMA, UBFLAT, UBLIGH and UBLOAN records. The report is limited to the Tax Exempt Flag, Skip Bill Flag and Extra Description from the UBMAST record and the rate code, sales tax code, skip bill flag and multiplier from the service records. Any changes that are not reported will require additional programming to add the fields. All data changes are logged but may not be included on this report. Changes made to data including those made by the billing process are included in the log file.

UB Field Level Security The Utility Billing Software was updated to offer the ability to secure data by blocking the view of the values in some fields and restricting update access to values in some fields. This program can be used to: • • Restrict viewing of sensitive data such as social security #s, drivers license #s, and bank account information Restrict update access to fields in the software such as rate codes Restrict deleting service records Restrict viewing/updates particular services such as only allowing inquiry to the water service or only allowing updates to the garbage service

Reporting in UB

Customer History Report • • The Customer History Report prints service information for selected accounts. This report prints account number, name, service address, status, type, service, rate code, service total, service average, 14 months of consumption and service amounts. Print options include: Beginning and Ending Account Numbers Print for a particular service or all services Print for a particular rate code or all rate codes Print accounts with a particular status or statuses Print service total consumption and amount for each service

Customer History Report • Print service average consumption and amount for each service • Start each account on a new page • Create a sequential file that can be imported into a spreadsheet • Choose which history months are printed. History month is the last month a transaction occurred on an account. • Choose which billing months are included

This completes our presentation on the Zortec Miscellaneous Receivables section of Resource 2015. If you have questions about any of these processes contact our Customer Support Center at 800. 439. 4504. For your convenience you can submit support requests and questions online at: www. localgovernmentcorporation. com 42