Processing does NOT generate reports: that is done in a separate step/program, usually the ITSBITS Reports Viewer, but we'll say more about that further down the page. Needless to say, Monthly Billing is an involved process, but it begins with a deceptively simple-looking screen something like this:

Month in this run (1-12)

You MUST be careful to tell the system what month you are doing the billing run for. Simply enter the 12-digit number for the month where 1=January and 12 = December.

Day of month (1-31)

What day of the month do you want the run to be considered as effective. As indicated on the screen, enter 1 through 31.

Year in this run

You MUST be careful to tell the system what year you are doing the billing run for. Simply enter the 4-digit year, i.e., 2003.

Kind of run to make

You must select from one of three options:

1. New billing run -- the first time a billing run has been made for the month/year indicated above.
2. Recast billing run -- the billing run has already been completed for the month/year indicated above, but there was something wrong so you want to "recast" the run, to redo it before you send bills and moneys based on the previous results. This option will only work on the current month's values.
3. Force recast run -- this will force the system to recast the run for a previous month. By and large, this is something you do not want to do since it will change all the billing and payment values in the system. This means that if you've already sent out bills to your customers, they may not match what is in the system after such a recast is forced. This will mean that the Receivables Table won't match what the customers send you and payment processing will have to be done on a policy-by-policy basis or a billing corrections entry will have to be made for a number of policies--not a pretty picture no matter how you look at it.

Force Initial Run

During the first stages of your processing, you may notice this check box on the screen. This can be used at first to get the system going as you strive to get your data right the first time. However, once the data has been found to be correct, you should NEVER use this option again since it wipes out all historical data and recasts the current month's data at the same time. The changes are irrevocable and the data loss is irretrievable.

Notice that the processing does NOT produce the billing report for you. Billing reports are available through the ITSBITS Reports Viewer and this allows you to produce reports using different formats, as needed, for different customers. Also, it means that other reports relating to the results of your billing run are made available to you through a common interface--fewer things to learn how to do!

Company Payment Received

This is the option to use if you have received FULL payment from a company, i.e., you billed them n dollars and they sent you exactly n dollars. When the option is started, you will see a skinny little screen something like this:

On this screen you must select the company the payment is from (using the drop-down box), enter the Month (1-12) and the year (4-digit format, like 2003) that the payment is for, and then click on the "RUN" button. When you do this, you will see a change on the screen as you are asked to verify the amount received from the customer. This might look something like this (except that there will be dollar amounts greater than zero involved):

If the total received from the customer matches the amount shown here, you are "good to go." Just click the "Yes" button and the system will post the payments to each Active Policy, Insured, Receivables record, etc., as required. You're done! However, if the amount received from the customer does not match what is shown, you will want to click "NO" and find out why the difference exists. Read on.

On one hand, it may well be that a billing-correction entry is in order. For example, if you billed for one person who, for whatever reason, the Company now says is gone, it would be easier to do a single billing-correction entry and put in a correction of the amount billed for that insured's policies than to go through each Active Policy at the company and do individual payment-received processing. This kind of decision will have to be made on a case-by-case situational basis, but hopefully you get the idea--one or two entries versus 400 is a pretty obvious decision.

On the other hand, it may be that, for whatever reason, the Company is sending you a partial payment. In this event, you will be required to go through and mark each Active policy that has been paid as paid. To do that, see the section below on Policy Payment Received.

Policy Payment Received

If, for whatever reason, the Company has only chosen to pay part of the policies you billed them for, you must use this program to post those payments to the system. A security level of OfficeStaff2 is required to run the program and when the option is begun, you will initially see a screen something like this:

As you look at this screen, you will see that the first thing you are asked for is the Policy ID Number, the number (in the system) that identifies the policy that was paid. A drop-down box lets you select the policy in question. Next, you must specify the 2-digit month and the 4-digit year the payment is for. Once this is entered, you will see buttons enabled and you will see dollar amounts filled in so that the screen looks more like the one shown below:

Notice that the name of the insured and the company is provided so you can verify that it is as you expect it to be. Now you have 4 options:

1. Post the full amount shown -- notice the "= Total Payment To Post" line. If the amount you are posting is this amount, you have been paid in full for this active policy/month/year. Simply click this button and move on.
2. Post a partial payment -- the amount in the "= Total Payment To Post" line is not the amount paid by the Company, but you have the money and need to post it to the system. In particular, use this if the customer has over-paid on the policy in question so that the overpayment will show up in the system as a credit.
3. Amount to post is different than amount received--billing correction is required -- The description says it all. You must learn why the difference exists, resolve it in some manner, and make a billing-correction entry to offset the difference. (You may find that you need to use the option immediately above and just leave them owing money, or you owing them.)
4. Amount to post is different than amount received. STOP until later -- OK, there's a difference and you have no idea why the difference exists. Just click this button and go find out. Good luck!

That's all there is to it. Hopefully the Company who is your customer won't have you in this program at all, or seldom ever, but when they do, you will find it easy, though repetitive and boring to use.

Insurance Carrier Payment Received

When a payment is received from the Insurance Carrier, this is the processing option to use. A security level of OfficeStaff1 is required to run the program, and when it is executed, you will be presented with a screen like the one shown here:

Begin by using the drop-down box and selecting the insurance carrier that sent the payment. Next enter the 2-digit month and the 4-digit year the payment is for. Once this is done, you will notice that the screen has changed to reflect additional information. Now the upper part of the window looks something like this:

The insurance carrier information is shown so that you can verify that this is, indeed, the carrier you meant to choose. At this point, you are ready to use the drop-down box and select which policy-type the payment represents. If the carrier sent one check for all policy types, you need only proceed to the next portion of the window, a sample of which is shown here. If the insurance carrier paid commissions on all policies, you may leave the drop down box showing "All Policies," otherwise, you must select the policy for which payment was received from the drop-down box. In either event, you should be careful that the amount you are posting is the same as the amount shown in the box labeled "Total amount to be returned/posted from carrier."

If necessary, you can select which policy has been paid, by using the drop-down box at this point.

Now you are presented with 3 options:

1. Post the amount shown as having been received -- if the amount you received from the insurance carrier matches the amount shown in "Total amount to be returned/posted from carrier" simply click on this button to post the payment and you're finished...congratulations.

2. Amount to post is different than amount shown--Enter correction amount now -- If you know why the difference exists, you can enter a correction amount--just click this button to proceed to do that.

3. Amount to post is different than amount shown--Cancel this entry for now -- If you do not yet know why the difference exists, you need to investigate it before you can proceed. Click on this button to stop with this entry for the present time.

When you are finished, just click on the doorway to get out of the program.

Age Off Cancelleds

Each month you will want to "age-of" cancelled policies and insureds. To do this, use the indicated module, set up the interval--usually 90 days--and click the RUN button. This will process through the database and delete all cancelled policies and insureds for you. This should be done before monthly billing processing is done--or you can do a recast run of monthly billing after aging off is completed. Either way, this will keep old, deleted records from apearing on your billing that you send to the Company (customers.)