Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics. Overview

Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics Overview

Practices for Lesson 13a: Overview Lesson Overview An adjustment is used to change the amount of debt stored on a service agreement. This chapter covers the management of your adjustments. Lesson Objectives By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: Add an adjustment Identify the ways in which adjustment type controls aspects of the adjustment s behavior Control the types of adjustments issued against a given SA type Explain how adjustments are aged Identify when the system automatically creates adjustments Transfer debt from one service agreement to another Identify background processes that upload adjustments Explain how adjustments go into suspense and how suspense is resolved 2 Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics

Practice 13a-1: Add an Adjustment Overview In this exercise, you will create an adjustment for the customer's electric service agreement. Task 1. Bring your customer into control central. 2. Add an adjustment. Use the dashboard's account context menu to select Go To Adjustment > Add. Select the electric residential service agreement in the search window Specify the adjustment information as indicated below: Adjustment Type: FSCHARGE Amount: leave the default value 3. Click Generate to begin creating the adjustment. A dialog will appear: 4. Leave the default date and click Calculate. 5. Freeze the Adjustment. After the adjustment is created, the Freeze and Delete buttons are enabled. Click Freeze. Note: The Freeze button is available because this adjustment type indicates that the user may freeze at will. If the option indicated freeze at bill completion, this button would not be available. In addition, you will learn in the next chapter how you can configure the adjustment type to require approval before it can be frozen. If you do this, the Freeze button is replaced with a Submit for Approval Button. Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics 3

Notice that after you click Freeze, the Cancel button is enabled and the Generate, Freeze, and Delete buttons are disabled in the Actions area of the panel. 6. Return to Control Central and check out the bill and payment tree Navigate to Control Central and see how the adjustment is reflected in the tree. You ll find it under the Next Bill - New transactions will appear on the Next Bill node in the tree. 4 Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics

Practice 13a-2: Examine the Adjustment Types that can be Issued Against Your Electric SA Overview In this exercise, you will look at the adjustment types that can be issued against the electric SA. Tasks 1. Open the adjustment profiles for E-RES. Navigate using Admin > Customer > SA Type > Search. Select the SA Type California / E-RES. Navigate to the Adj Profile page. 2. Examine a profile. Look at one of the Adjustment Type Profiles that has been designated as valid for the E-RES SA Type. Navigate using Admin > Financial > Adjustment Type Profile > Search. Select the Profile MISCFEES. Notice that ADCHARTX is one of the adjustment types that is in the profile. Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics 5

Practice 13a-3: Start Aging the Adjustment Immediately Overview In this exercise, you will start aging the adjustment immediately. Tasks 1. Check out the electric SA's aged debt. Use the account context menu in the current context zone and select Go To Service Agreement > Search to navigate to the electric service agreement on your account. Notice how the adjustment amount appears as a New Charge. This is because it has been shown to the customer and it hasn't started aging yet. You can see the same thing in the aged debt bar in the Financial Information zone by hovering the mouse over the green section of the bar 6 Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics

2. Transfer to the adjustments. Transfer to the adjustment by using the context menu adjacent to the SA ID and selecting Go To Adjustment > Search. Because there is only one adjustment for the SA, it is displayed. 3. Click the Go To button immediately to the left of the Financial Transaction ID to open the adjustment s FT page. Change the Adjustment s FT s Arrears Date When the FT panel appears: New Charge: remove the check mark Arrears Date: 04-25-2017 4. Click Save. Notice that the aged debt bar in the Dashboard changed. Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics 7

5. Return to the Service Agreement and review its aged debt Use Recent Pages to return to the service agreement and look at the aged debt. 8 Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics

Practice 13a-4: Transfer Debt Overview In this exercise you will transfer $10 of debt to another SA. Tasks 1. Bring your customer into control central and scroll down to review your SA Premise List. Please make sure that your electric service agreement has at least $20 of debt in its current balance. 2. Instead of having connection charges on the utility-focused service agreements, let s add another service agreement that will specifically hold these charges. Navigate to Start/Stop (use the account context menu or go back to Control Central and click Start Service). Populate the fields in the start area as follows: 3. Click Start. Start Date: 04-25-2017 Start Method: Start a SA CIS Division: California SA Type: CONNECT Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics 9

4. When the Start SA Confirmation dialog appears, select the start option titled STANDARD. Notice that the start option is going to levy a standard fee using an adjustment (the adjustment type and amount are specified on the start option type). Click Start. Because this is a one-time SA, the system automatically transitions the status from Active to Stopped. This is so the SA will be closed when it is paid in full. We can still transfer debt to it using an adjustment. If you were to navigate to the SA you would see that the current arrears amount is $50.00. 5. Add a transfer adjustment. Navigate to the SA Premise List and review your service agreements. We are going to transfer $10 from the electric SA to the connection charge SA. In order to do this, we will: In CCB credits are written with as a negative number. Credit the electric SA (-$10) Debit the connection charge SA ($10) 10 Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics

6. Use the electric service agreement s context menu and select Go To Adjustment > Add. In the adjustment s Main page, enter the following information: Adjustment Type: XFER Amount: -10.00 (credit) 7. Navigate to the Transfer Adjustment page to specify the SA where the debt will be transferred. Use the search button adjacent to the SA ID to select the Connection Charge service agreement. 8. Click Save. This automatically populates the debit side of the adjustment and gives you an opportunity to review your work. 9. Click Generate to generate both the transfer from and transfer to adjustments. 10. When the generate dialog appears, accept the default date and Calculate. 11. After the adjustments are created, click Freeze to freeze the FTs. After freezing the adjustments, use the Service Agreement context menu and review the balance on the Connection Charge service agreement. Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics 11

Review Questions 1. If a customer was charged an incorrect rate on a bill, the proper way to correct the error is to calculate what the customer s bill should have been and then create an adjustment to affect the SA s balance accordingly. True/False False. The correct method is to change the rate on the SA and then do a cancel/rebill in the billing subsystem. The cancel/rebill process will reverse the original bill segment and create a new one. In other words, correct the cause of the error, not the effect. 2. An adjustment can be used to change the amount a customer owes for a deposit. True/False True. You don't know this yet, but a deposit is held on a service agreement just like every other type of debt. Therefore, you can use an adjustment to change the amount of deposit debt. 3. A single adjustment can be used to modify several service agreements debt. True/False False. An adjustment is linked to a service agreement. To change several service agreements debt, it would be necessary to create several adjustments. 4. An adjustment is used to charge a customer for a bounced check. True/False True. Adjustments can be used to levy any type of one-time charge. The system creates an NSF adjustment behind-the-scenes when a tender is canceled using a NSF reason code. 5. Many one-off charges are levied by creating adjustments behind the scenes. True/False True. Besides NSF charges, the system creates adjustments for late payment charges and connection charges (connection charges can be created via an adjustment on a start option) and many other charges. 6. All adjustments have an adjustment type. True/False True. 7. All adjustments affect the GL in some way. True/False False. Adjustments that just affect a service agreement s current balance (as opposed to its payoff balance) do not affect the GL. A good example of such an adjustment is one used to change a budget service agreement s current balance. 8. An adjustment type could reference both a default amount and a default amount algorithm. True/False False. The adjustment type may reference one or the other, but not both. 9. An adjustment can apply a rate to a quantity to calculate the adjustment amount. True/False True. 12 Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics

10. The default amount algorithm and the generate adjustment algorithm both provide an adjustment amount. What is the difference between these two plug-in spots? A user may override the amount produced by the default adjustment amount algorithm. The generate adjustment algorithm may apply further calculations to a base amount and produce a calculated amount. The user cannot override the calculated amount. (The user could modify the base adjustment amount and regenerate the calculated amount.) The generate adjustment algorithm could also produce multiple calculation lines and general ledger details. 11. The general ledger account used to book late payment charges defaults from the adjustment s adjustment type. True/False True. And the receivable GL account comes from the distribution code on the SA s SA type. 12. A customer with a single metered service agreement who is not on a budget could have an adjustment where current amount differs from payoff amount. True/False False. There is no justification for these two attributes to differ for such an SA. The amount the customer thinks they owe is equivalent to how much they really owe. 13. The GL account defaulted from the adjustment type may be debited or credited as a result of an adjustment. It all depends on whether the adjustment amount is positive or negative. True/False True. For example, if the adjustment is used to levy a charge (a positive adjustment value), you will credit the GL account defaulted from the adjustment type. If the adjustment is used to forgive a charge (a negative adjustment), you will debit the GL account defaulted from the adjustment type. 14. Information about an adjustment always appears on the account s next bill. True/False False. Every adjustment s financial transaction contains a switch that controls whether information should appear on the account s next bill. The value of this switch defaults from the adjustment s adjustment type but you can change the value as needed. 15. An adjustment affects an account s total debt when the adjustment is frozen. However, most adjustments only start aging when they are swept onto an account s bill. True/False True. Every adjustment s financial transaction contains a switch that controls when the adjustment starts aging. By default, this switch is set to only start aging the adjustment when it s swept onto the next bill. You can change the value as needed. 16. A transfer adjustment can be used to transfer funds between two accounts (e.g., a credit balance from one service agreement can be used to offset the debit balance on another). True/False True. Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics 13

17. Assume a customer had 2 service agreements, both of which have a credit balance. Next assume that the customer would like a check for the total amount of the credit. Explain how / if you could satisfy this request. Transfer the credit from SA 1 to SA2 (with a transfer adjustment). Then create an A/P adjustment for the check amount against SA2. 18. It seems logical that every bill segment that is canceled will have an associated adjustment. True/False False. When a bill is canceled, the financial impact is recorded on the bill segment (actually on the bill segment s cancellation financial transaction), therefore an adjustment is not needed to change the account s debt. 19. Fact: transfer adjustments (a pair of adjustments) use a clearing GL account to hold the transferred money. Question: the net effect on the clearing GL account will always be zero. True/False True. 20. Canceling an adjustment reverses its financial impact. True/False True. 21. If you cancel an adjustment before it s swept onto a bill, no information about the adjustment will appear on the account s next bill. True/False True. 22. An adjustment that reduces a customer s debt could cause a stopped service agreement to be closed. True/False True. 14 Practices for Lesson 13: Adjustments - Part 1: Adjustment Basics