This Help topic describes how to use the credit reporting features and how Collect!'s credit reporting functions work. This requires familiarity with setting up Company Details and Debtors in Collect!, as well as experience using Collect! in your day to day business operations.

The Credit Bureau Reporting module is optional and must be purchased prior to use for reporting credit. There is a fully functional Credit Bureau demonstration module in the Demodb database that ships with Collect!

You can easily send credit reports to the major credit bureaus using the standard Metro 2 (426 character format) file format.

WARNING: Reporting credit is a legal matter. You are responsible for ensuring that the information you are sending is accurate and complete. Do not report credit without being ABSOLUTELY SURE about your legal rights and the legal rights of the person or entity you are reporting.

Reporting Credit

When you set up your credit bureau reporting correctly, Collect! takes care of all the details by automatically scheduling a Metro contact for each debtor that you want to report. After you report, Collect! forwards this contact for the next reporting period. Collect! tracks changes in the debtor's profile for credit bureau purposes and reports the correct codes to the bureau.

Please refer to Credit Report Details for more information. This form is accessed from the Debtor screen. It is where you keep track of the debtor's status for credit reporting purposes.

How To Report Credit

1. To set up credit reporting, you need only to enter your company ID codes as assigned to you by the credit bureaus.

Each reporting bureau requires specific ID codes to identify your company. Please discuss the requirements with your credit reporting agency.

Open the System Administration menu, then choose System Setup and Configuration and Credit Bureau Reporting. In the Credit Bureau Setup form that appears, enter the ID and control codes as required by the bureaus you intend to report to. Press F1 from this form to see details.

2. To assign individual Debtors for credit reporting, select the CBR tab on the Debtor form. This pops up the Credit Report Details form where you can switch ON the switch labeled ' Report to Credit Bureaus' and fill in Credit Bureau reporting options for the Debtor.

Set details such as the type of debt, open the co-signer form if needed, and check out the defaults for your Credit Report Preferences.

3. To assign a batch of Debtors for bureau reporting, select Tools from the top menu bar and then select Batch Processing from the drop-down choices. In the Batch Processing form, select Prepare accounts for credit bureau reporting. Follow the on-screen instructions.

4. To create the Metro 2 file to send to the bureaus, select Tools from the top menu bar and then select Credit Report from the drop-down choices. This will bring up the Report To Credit Bureaus form. Follow the on-screen instructions or Press F1 for help.

How Collect! Credit Reporting Works

The credit reporting functions of Collect! operate mostly behind the scenes, requiring little or no user intervention. However, sending reports to credit bureaus requires attention to detail. It is your responsibility to make sure that the information you send is accurate and complete, and that all the required information is included for the Metro standard that you are using.

When you turn credit reporting on for a Debtor, Collect! schedules a Metro Contact on a specific date. As you set up reporting for debtors, in the Credit Report Details form accessed from the Debtor form, the contacts are saved in the main Contact list.

WARNING: Do not attempt to change the text in the Description field of the Metro Contact, or INACCURATE REPORTING MAY OCCUR. This field is for display only. Collect uses it internally for storing encoded credit reporting information.

When you create a Metro 2 credit report file, Collect! scans through all Metro contacts scheduled for today and the past. For each contact, Collect! sends the Debtor information to the Metro file, and marks the contact as done, setting its Done Date to today so you know when they were reported.

Contacts are only marked done when you have completed a report with no errors.

The next time you run a credit report, Collect! will not send the ones that have already been marked as done.

When a change occurs that needs to be reported to the bureaus (such as a change in the Debtor's owing, or you closing the account), Collect! schedules a ne contact which contains the updated information. The next time you run a credit report, the new contact is detected and the update is sent. That contact is again marked as done, with its Done Date set appropriately, provided you have completed the report with no errors.

Financial Totals

Collect! manages all normal changes that you make to an account as it is paid and the Debtor's Owing proceeds to zero. All credit reporting details are handled automatically.

If you make changes to an account that are different from the norm, for instance a Judgement or Adjustment or Write Off or Settlement, then you will have to manually adjust your credit report settings at the Debtor level.

Closing Accounts

Collect! manages credit bureau accounts if Paid In Full and will send the appropriate code to the credit bureau and not report anymore. You can also set up Collect! to handle the non-CBR related changes that you may want to make to such an account (such as Debtor Status and Mode.)

If you close an account for other reasons, you will have to manually adjust your credit report settings at the Debtor level.

Canceling Credit Reporting

If you cancel credit reporting before a report has been sent to the bureaus, Collect! simply deletes the scheduled Metro contact. No report on the Debtor will ever be sent.

If a debtor does not have a METRO contact that is marked DONE at the time you set the Status Code in Credit Report Details to Delete Account from Credit Bureau, then Collect! will assume the account has never been reported. Therefore Collect! simply deletes the Metro contact and switches OFF CBR.

If you set the account to cancel reporting after having sent a report to the bureaus, Collect! will schedule a Metro contact to tell the credit bureaus the account has been closed.

Entering Your Company Information

Select Tools from the top menu bar and then select Credit Report from the drop-down choices. When the Report to Credit Bureaus form displays, select the Credit Bureau Setup button the display a form where you can enter your company ID codes. This information is handled slightly differently depending on the format you report in, check your Metro 2 manual for details.

There are a few other choices in this form, including a switch to report by Client Account Number. By default, Collect! sends the Debtor File Number of the account to the credit bureau. You should leave Report client account number switched off unless you are sure you need it. Press F1 for more information on this and the other settings, when you are looking at the Credit Bureau Setup form.

Setting Up The Debtor

When sending reports to credit bureaus, it is the user's responsibility to make sure that the name and the address fields are in the required format. This information is handled slightly differently depending on the format you report in, check your Metro 2 manual for details.

Pressing F1 from the Debtor and Cosigner forms will bring up help for each field in those forms. This help includes credit bureau reporting details for entering information in each field that pertains to credit reporting. Please read this help carefully, as information sent to credit bureaus must be in an EXACT format.

Debtor Form

The following information is entered in the Debtor form.

File Number

By default, Collect! sends the Debtor File Number of the account to the credit bureau. Once you start reporting to the credit bureaus, the Debtor's File Number must not change while the account is being reported.

You must not have duplicate File Numbers in your database. This is Collect!'s UNIQUE identifier for each account.

Name

The Name of the Debtor entered as ' Last, First Middle Initial'. Please ensure your spelling is correct. If you do not type a comma in the name, Collect! will assume the name is a business name.

Multiple last names must be hyphenated. e. g. Van-Deusen, Jack.

Only enter one Debtor's Name in this field. If you have a Cosigner, use the Cosigner form.

When reporting Commercial accounts, Collect! can detect a business name as long as there is no comma in the Name. If there are commas in the business name, please ensure that you switch ON "Business/Commercial" in the ECOA designation when setting up the account for reporting.

Generation

Use this field for generation, not the Name field. (Jr., Sr., II, III, etc.)

Address

For accurate reporting of addresses, checkout the handbook called Postal Addressing Standards at your local US Post Office. Use standard postal abbreviations for type of street.

For example, 'Pkwy' for Parkway or 'St' for Street

There are two acceptable address formats. Please note that the commas between City and State are required where shown below, and Address Line 1 is interpreted as a contact name only if there are no numbers in the field.

- Format 1:

- Address = street address
- Addr1 = blank
- City = city
- State = state
- Zip = zip
- Country = country code

- Format 2:

- Address = street address
- Addr1 = suite or apartment number
- City = city
- State = state
- Zip = zip
- Country = country code

Do not include the # symbol in the apartment number. The Credit Bureau rejects addresses with the # sign. If no zip code is found, the address lines are ignored and not reported.

Addr 1

Do not use words like "Suite", "Apt.", etc. or the '#' symbol, just enter the Number of the suite or apartment.

City

Truncate the rightmost portion of this field to 20 characters, or use the standard 13-character U.S. Postal Service city abbreviations.

State

Enter the State or Province code in this field. Us the correct Postal Service codes.

For Example: WA for Washington

ZIP Codes

The zip code may be either 5 or 9 digits for U.S. zip codes, or 6 digits for Canadian postal codes.

For example: 12345-6789 or 123456789 for U.S. and X2Y 3Z4 or X2Y3Z4 for Canada.

Country

Enter the standard two-character country abbreviation.

SSN

Enter a valid SSN. If SSN is not known, Please check with your Client/Account provider for the required information.

For example: 123-45-6789 or 123-456-789 or 123456789

DOB

A valid Date of Birth must be entered. If DOB is not known, Please check with your Client/Account provider for the required information.

Please refer to F1 help from the Debtor form for additional information regarding fields for credit bureau reporting.

Client Form

If you are reporting in METRO 2 format, you must enter a valid creditor classification for each Client whose debtors you are reporting. Enter this information in the Client form's Type field. This field contains a pick list of choices that represents the standard credit bureau list of valid creditor classifications. If the choice you want is not contained in the list, please confirm with your credit bureau that it is a valid classification. If so, you can add it to the list. See How To Use Pick Lists.

Please inform Comtech Systems if you discover a valid classification that is not in the default list.

Client Settings Form

Three additional settings are necessary to set in the Client Settings form. On the left side of the Client Settings form, three boxes to be checked.

1. Report accounts to bureaus: When this is checked, Collect! knows that the Client is set to report credit.

2. Send client detail to bureaus: When this is checked, the client's details will be sent to the Bureau.

3. Delinquent 31 days prior to list: is no longer a valid option. If Delinquent Date is not known, Please check with your Client/Account provider for the required information.

WARNING: You must provide a delinquency date for all accounts reported to the Credit Bureau. The delinquency date appears on the Debtor form and is defined as the date of the first delinquency that led to the derogatory status being reported.

It is always better to put in the exact Delinquency Date, if it is known, whenever you set up an account for reporting to credit bureaus.

Credit Report Preferences Form

The following information is entered in the Credit Report Preferences form. The options are used as default values when you report Debtor credit.

The list of default account types provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. Refer to your Metro format manual for details.

Press F1 from the Credit Report Preferences form for more information about the following options.

WARNING: It is the User's responsibility to make sure that any values that the User creates abide to the standards set by the Metro 2 Format.

If you are having trouble deciding what default values should be set, contact your local credit bureau representative.

Industry

This field contains the industry type that classifies the reporting agency. The list of default account types provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. Please refer to your Metro 2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Account Type

This field contains the account type code that identifies the account classification. The list of default account types provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. Please refer to your Metro 2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Status Code

This field contains the status code that properly identifies the current condition of the account. The list of default status codes provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. Please refer to your Metro 2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Portfolio Type

This field contains the type of the debt. The pick list offers choices for common credit and loan types. Please refer to your Metro 2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Comments

This field is used in conjunction with the Account Status to further define the account. Special comment codes, when found, will however take precedence over the value in Account Status.

The list of default choices provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. Please refer to your Metro 2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Association

This is used to designate an account in compliance with the ECOA. This setting can be changed for an individual Debtor through the Credit Report Details form accessed from the Debtor form.

The list of default choices provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. Please refer to your Metro 2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Condition Code

This field allows for reporting of a condition that is required for legal compliance; e.g., according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Please refer to your Metro 2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Country Code

This is the country that the Debtor lives in.

The list of default country codes provided by Collect! is only a few of the most used country codes. Please refer to your Metro 2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Default Info Ind

This field provides for entering a value indicating a bankruptcy condition that applies to the Debtor cosigner. Please refer to your Metro 2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Delay Before 1St Report

Switch this On to Delay before the first Credit Report. Enter the number of days to delay in the Delay Days field.

This switch is used in conjunction with the Credit Report Details form accessed from the Debtor form. When you switch ON "Report to credit bureau" in the Credit Report Details form, the "Start reporting" date will be calculated according the defaults you set here. You can override these by choosing a new "Start reporting" date in the Credit Report Details form for a particular Debtor.

Delay Days

Enter the number of days that you wish to delay before reporting a new Debtor or an existing Debtor that you choose to report to credit bureaus. The number you enter here will be calculated into the "Start reporting" date in the Credit Report Details form accessed from the Debtor form.

Cosigner

This field is used to determine if the Debtor has a cosigner to be reported on. ECOA choices and details are filled in on the Debtor Cosigner form. Select the COSIGNERS tab in the Debtor form to access Cosigner information for the Debtor. Press F1 when the Debtor Cosigner form is displayed. The Help topic contains valuable information about credit bureau reporting formats for each field.

ECOA options and choices are determined by the Metro format you choose as your credit bureau reporting standard.

Pressing F1 from the Debtor and Cosigner forms will bring up help for each field in those forms. This help includes credit bureau reporting details for entering information in each field that pertains to credit reporting. Please read this help carefully, as information sent to credit bureaus must be in an EXACT format.

K1 Segment Original Creditor Client Detail

You must be sure put a check in the box labeled Send client detail to bureaus in the Client Settings form to send the K1 segment.

How To Run A Credit Bureau Report

When the Credit Bureau Setup is complete and you have set up debtors to be reported, you are ready to run a test credit bureau report.

This topic can only be used after the Credit Bureau Setup is complete. Please refer to How To Setup Credit Bureau Reporting if you are not sure you are ready to run a credit bureau report.

Please be aware that there is a minimum number of debtors and a minimum dollar value that credit bureaus will accept. Please check with your representative to determine these requirements.

Report Debtors To The Credit Bureau

Now let's go through the steps to report your debtors to the Credit Bureau.

WARNING: Reporting Credit is a legal matter. You are responsible for ensuring that the information you
are sending is accurate and complete. Do not report credit without being absolutely sure about your legal rights
and the legal rights of the person you are reporting.

Printing A Summary Report

This procedure prints a summary report for your own information. This is not sent to the bureaus.
Although not absolutely necessary, a summary report is useful to review the output to be sure the
desired accounts are being reported. This creates a report that you can print and keep for your records.

1. At the Collect! Main Menu, select Tools from the top menu bar and then select Credit Reporting from the drop-down choices.

Tools Menu - Credit Reporting

This will display the Report To Credit Bureaus form.

2. You will notice several check boxes on the left side of the form. We want to know how many
In Progress Metro contacts we have for Collect! to process. So, place a check mark in the box labeled Print summary report.

Report To Credit Bureaus - Print Summary Report

Select the NEXT button.

For Printer Destination, we will just select PREVIEW to see the total number of In Progress Metro contacts.
Most likely you will not need to print this report and it may be many pages long!
We use it primarily to get an idea of the number of accounts we are processing in this credit report.

Credit Report List Printing Options

Select PRINT and the report will be displayed. Scroll to the bottom and note the number of Accounts Listed.
You can use this to verify the results later on. Then close the Print Preview window and return to the Report to Credit Bureaus dialog.

Choosing The Credit Bureau To Report To

You should be looking at the Report To Credit Bureaus form. Notice that are three names of Credit Bureaus on the left side of the form.

1. Please place a check mark in the box next to the Credit Bureau you are reporting to.
Put a check mark for at least one credit bureau and uncheck the 'Print Summary Report' check box so that it will not try to print again.

You can report to one Bureau only or all of them. If you select more than one Bureau,
Collect! will produce three separate files, one for each bureau, one after the other.
If you chose your C drive in the Credit Bureau Setup, these files will be located in the root of your CV11 folder.
The prescan routine used by Collect! will be done only once even if you are reporting to more than one bureau.

2. Place a check mark in the box labeled 'Mark contacts as done'.

Report To Credit Bureaus Settings

3. When you are ready, select the NEXT button to proceed.

Collect! will quickly count your active Metro contacts and present you with the results.

If you have fewer than 500 accounts actively being reported to bureaus, you will be prompted for further action.

Report Minimum 500 Required Accounts

Please refer to the section below entitled "Reactivate Metros" for information about the choices that are presented to you.

If you have more than 500 accounts actively being reported, Collect! compiles the Metros and prepares to produce your report.
With fewer than 500 accounts, this process happens after you select ALL or IN PROGRESS when the prompt is displayed.

4. After Collect! processes the Metro contacts, a summary dialog displays. It may have warnings about accounts that Collect!
cannot process for the credit report.

Credit Report Warning

Collect! counts all the Metros. Then it eliminates the future dated ones as "not applicable."
This is for your information only and requires no action on your part.

Also, Collect! warns you of accounts that were skipped "due to problems."
These instances are recorded in the CBR Log and should be reviewed so that you can correct them.

You have two options. You can select YES to continue with your report and leave the problem accounts
out of this report, or you can select NO, review the CBR Log, correct any problems and run your report later.

5. Select YES to continue with your report. Collect! will display the bureau file it is creating, the name and
location where the file may be found. If you are reporting to more than one bureau, this prompt will display
for each bureau as shown below.

The screen shot below shows that Collect! will create a credit report file for Trans Union in C:\TU.001.

Export Data for Trans Union to C:\TU.001

The screen shot below shows that Collect! will create a credit report file for Experian in C:\EXP.001.

Export Data for Experian to C:\EXP.001

The screen shot below shows that Collect! will create a credit report file for Equifax in C:\EFX.001.

Export Data for Equifax to C:\EFX.001

If you create your files on Drive C, you may get a file permission error in some of the latest operating systems.
It is recommended that you map a drive to use for your credit bureau reporting files.

6. If there are errors in any of the data for the accounts you are reporting, you will see an error message.
Collect! will display a summary of errors. These errors should be corrected so that all your accounts can be included in the credit report file.

CBR Reporting Errors

7. The next form will tell you what was processed. Please note how many files were processed and exported.
You can compare this with the results obtained earlier when you printed the Summary Report.

Credit Report Results

The screen shot shows errors. Please note that the errors must be corrected or the accounts
in error will not be included in the credit bureau file.
You need to correct all errors and run the credit bureau report again until it reports "No Errors."

Accounts that cannot be reported due to errors will be listed in the CBR Log. Collect!
creates the file for you but leaves these accounts out of it.

8. Select OK. You will now be asked if you are done with the credit reports.

Select NO If There Are Errors To Correct

You must select NO if you have errors. Then view the CBR Log to see the details so that you can correct the errors.

View CBR Log

After this Collect! displays the CBR Log for you. If there are any errors, they will be reported in this log.
You can examine it for details and file numbers if you have errors to correct. One common error is no Delinquency Date.

The viewed log message below shows examples of errors that you may see.
Please go back to these debtors and add the necessary information and run your report again.
You may even have to run a report a few times to correct all errors.

Errors Reported In CBR Log

If you don't usually clear the contents of this log when asked to "Clear Log" after viewing it,
you may need to scroll to the bottom of the log to see the most recent session entries.

After viewing the log of your results, if there are no reported errors, you can now close the log.
You will be prompted to clear the log. Choose YES or NO.

After you have corrected any errors, run your report again. When you have no errors, you can say
YES when asked if you are done with the credit reports.

Select YES to Mark Contacts Done

Marking The Contacts Done

This is a very important step. When you are finished reporting each month,
you MUST mark the Metro contacts as done BUT only if you are really finished with the report!

When you run your report and it shows no errors, you are ready to send your file or files to the bureaus.

It is very important that contacts are marked done as the last step. It is also important that they are not marked donei
f you still have errors to correct and you want to include all the accounts in the final file that you create.

Select YES to Mark Contacts Done

If you have errors to correct, select NO. Correct your errors and run your report again.

Select YES only if you have no errors to correct and you want to mark the
Metro contacts as done and send the file or files that Collect! just finished creating.
If there are reported errors, the Metro contacts for these debtors will not be marked done.

When you select YES, Collect! marks all the Metro contacts as Done EXCEPT any outstanding errors.
Metro contacts on accounts that could not be reported due to errors are left In Progress.

Collect! will automatically take care of creating next month's Metro contacts for your accounts,
if appropriate. A final summary window will display the number of Metro contacts marked done and the number forwarded.

Summary of Metro Contacts Processed

Select OK to close the window.

CBR Test File

You may now send your first file to the credit bureau AS A TEST. If they are satisfied and accept it,
you may resubmit it as an actual report.

Collect! creates the files but it does not submit them.
You must do that yourselves in whatever way you have agreed upon with your credit bureau representative.

Reactivate Metros

Some credit bureaus will no longer process a file with fewer than 500 accounts.
Collect!'s Credit Bureau Reporting function handles this by giving you options to reactivate Metro contacts.
You may use these options to report as many of your CBR accounts as necessary to fulfill the bureau requirements.

If you have fewer than 500 accounts to report, you are presented with the option of reporting all CBR accounts i
n the database, or reactivating as many accounts as needed to report 500 accounts.

Report Minimum 500 Required Accounts

Select Report In Progress to report only the accounts that have active Metro contacts.
Please be aware that the credit bureau may reject your file if they require a 500 account minimum report.

Select Report Minimum to reactivate the necessary number of Metro contacts to report 500 accounts.
This process may take a while as Collect! browses your list of debtors to find accounts with CBR switched ON.

Select Report All to reactivate all your Metro contacts and report all accounts with CBR switched ON.
This process may take a while as Collect! browses your list of debtors to find accounts with CBR switched ON.

After Collect! determines which debtors have CBR switched ON, the required number will be reactivated.
After the Reactivate Metros function has completed, the credit report file is created.

Historical Reporting

There are times when you may want to report to credit bureaus in a fashion that is not covered by the normal scheduled events.
For instance, you may need to rerun a report that was already completed.

The historical reporting section of the Report To Credit Bureaus is designed to handle these anomalous reporting procedures.
You can specify a date and/or choose to run your report on completed contacts.

DONE DATE

Choose a date to run a report on Metro contacts that were marked done on this particular date.

COMPLETED ONLY

Switch this ON to include only completed Metro contacts in this credit bureau report.

Historical reports are run following the same procedures outlined above, for regular credit reporting.

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