The External Collections page is used to manage service fee lines of guarantor accounts that are transferred from active AR to external collections.
The external collections process is a four-part process: selection, posting (approval), managing, and reporting. These processes can be manual or fully or partially automated. Your business practices determine how much or how little of this process is automated. The external collection process transfers the service fee lines from active AR to external collections. These line items become external collection transactions in external collections.
The automated external collections process is a nightly process controlled by the external collection rules configured for the practice. The external collection rules determine which external collection agency the external collection transactions are assigned to, how service fee lines are selected for transfer to external collections, whether the external collection transactions are automatically posted, and if the electronic file of the posted external collection transactions is automatically created.
External Collections is comprised of three tabs:
Service fee lines selected and queued for transfer to external collections are listed on the Pending tab until they are posted manually or until they are posted automatically through the automated external collections process. If posted automatically, the service fee lines bypass the pending queue and go directly from active AR to external collection transactions. Use the Pending tab to manage new external collection transactions prior to posting them.
After posting, external collection transactions are listed on the Transactions tab. Active AR is updated with the EXCOL transaction code for the service fee line that was transferred to external collections. An external collection transaction can be transferred from the pending queue back to active AR prior to posting through the denial function on the Pending tab or after posting through the reversal process on the Transactions tab. Use this tab to manage all external collection transactions. When an external collection payment is recorded through a payment entry, the outstanding balance of an external collection transaction is updated. While in external collections, an external collection transaction can be adjusted, reversed, or reassigned.
External collection transactions are grouped by external collection agency and compiled in an electronic file and listed on the Files tab. This file is created automatically through the automated external collections process or manually from the Create function on the Files tab. You can preview the contents of the electronic file from the Print function on the Files tab or from the External Collection Reports.