Rebate Processing - Recommended Procedures

Background

Accounts with Elements setup with rebates on them will be automatically rebated when using the individual Account Close wizard.

The screen below shows an Element setup with a rebate, as per Admin, Elements, "Credit/ Rebates" page:

An Account with an applicable transaction using that Element will automatically be rebated on an Early Settlement in the Close wizard, i.e. Insurance, Credit $60.58:

And then on the next page of the wizard a credit of the same amount, reducing the Balance Due:

Handling these kinds of situations in bulk requires a different approach and is demonstrated in the instructions below.

Recommended process for bulk processing of Early Settlement Accounts with rebates due

A key consideration is that it is not appropriate to handle rebates when processing the payment to the Account, it is instead best to handle this in the standard Close Accounts wizard.

This situation is complicated when clients (outside of the finance company's control) decide to pay the balance shown on a statement they've received, which will take the balance to zero, prior to maturity. The first step is to prevent Accounts closing automatically during Account Processes (because they have a zero balance) until any appropriate rebate is applied and potentially refunded, and any accruals have been charged.

This is configured at an Account Type level. The screen below shows the recommended setup.

To ensure the refunds show up correctly in the Close Accounts wizard, the 'Refund Credit' value would need to reflect an appropriate value, given the expected rebate value possibilities of Accounts in the database for that Account Type. It should be set to $999,999,999.00:

Accounts that have valid rebates due to early settlement etc, and that have been paid in full, will be included in the Close Accounts wizard having automatically calculated the refund due based on the rebate value. However, the checkbox will be disabled, meaning they cannot be bulk closed. This is because the refund process must be completed separately, as a decision needs to be made about whether to perform the refund and if so, how that refund is to be processed.

Obviously, this applies to any Account requiring a refund, regardless of the reasons. The Account can be opened from the grid, and the Account can be closed manually, and any applicable refund completed as part of that process (detailed below):

Any Account in the Close Accounts wizard where the include checkbox is not read-only means the Account can be bulk closed. This wizard will not let Accounts with rebates requiring refunding to be closed automatically, but all other small balance and zero balance Accounts can be attended to easily here.

Completing an Account Close Refund

• After drilling down to the Account from the Close Accounts wizard, select the 'Close' Action and follow the wizard's pages.
• The rebate will be calculated automatically.
• This will fluctuate based on when the Account is to be closed.
• The Close should be backdated to when the payment was applied - the wizard will show the Close date which is the date of the last payment.
• You should also check the Schedule and any transactions dated after the last payment may need reversing.
• This is the primary reason the Close Accounts wizard should be run on a daily basis, to ensure that these transactions are going through correctly with the correct dates/values etc. Also, if done daily there’s not likely to be many Accounts in this situation.
• Also, if an Account is paid out in full at maturity, there are no rebates to contend with, this is solely for Early Settlements.

This final page allows the selection of the Transaction Type and the Payment Method for the Refund:

Conclusion

• Bulk closing of Accounts should be handled in the standard Close Accounts wizard, not when payments are received.
• The Close Accounts wizard should ideally be run daily.
• All Accounts with zero balances (or balances within the small balance thresholds) will automatically be included and can be easily bulk processed.
• If the Account Type is setup as described above, Accounts paid in full prior to maturity with rebates due will be correctly identified in the Close Accounts wizard, along with their relevant Refund value.
• These can then be processed via the Close Account wizard on a case by case basis.
• If Accounts have Standard Transactions that don't have stop dates, then these Accounts will reach zero balance when paid in full (prior to or post maturity) and will still be closed (if the wizard is run daily) before the next fee charges, avoiding large balances of fees accruing.