Debt Collection actions

Case Actions (The EDIT CASE Button)

To make any changes, arrange payment plans, or close a case, you use the EDIT CASE button located near the top right of the case screen.

Clicking EDIT CASE opens a modal window with several important actions to manage the debt. You select the desired action from the list to reveal its specific fields.

Action	Context and Purpose	Key Fields/Details
Documents	Used for downloading legal or financial documentation associated with the case.	Allows you to Choose document from a predefined list for attachment or action. The list includes Debt specification when the case has one.
Part Payment Plan	Use this when agreeing to a structured payment schedule with the debtor to pay off the debt over time.	Requires setting a Duration (e.g., 12 months) and an Expire date. It often involves adding a Fee and Interest amount for the plan.
Pay Later	Provides flexibility for the debtor by allowing them to specify a date within they intend to make a payment.	Requires setting the Charge Date (the date the payment is expected the latest).
Write Off	Used when the debt, or a portion of it, is deemed uncollectible and must be removed from the active balance.	You can specify the amounts of Fee, Interest, and Capital to be written off.
Charge Client / Charge Debtor	Allows an operator to manually create a new charge or fee that is applied either to the client (who owns the debt) or the debtor (who owes the debt).	Requires inputting the Article (type of charge), Amount, and a Description.
Settlement Order	This function defines the precedence for how incoming payments are applied to the various components of the debt.	Allows re-ordering the priority (e.g., should payments cover Fees first, then Interest, then Capital?). This is governed by legal and business rules.
Notifications	Used to notify the operator of certain events in the system.	Allow user to create an automatic to-do task on received payment.
Pause	Temporarily halts all automated collection activities on the case.	Pauses the collection process.
Stop	Used to permanently close the collection case. This is a final action.	Requires careful review, often asking if any collected fees and/or interest should be reimbursed to the client.
Enforcement	Sends the case to enforcement before the workflow reaches that step.	Tick Send to enforcement. Not available when the case is paused, disputed, closed, has a part payment plan, has no claim distributed yet, or is already in enforcement. Further checks apply when the case is sent.

Impact of Starting a Part Payment Plan for Debt Collection

The primary goal of a Part Payment Plan is to provide the debtor with a structured path to resolving their debt. When you initiate a Part Payment Plan on a Collection Case, the status and timeline visible in both the Operations Portal and the Client Portal update immediately to reflect the new agreement.

How the Timeline Changes

1. Original Process Paused: The standard, linear Collection Case Timeline (which includes notifications, monitoring, and potential enforcement steps) is paused in the Operations Portal. The case status is set to “Paused” and ledger status is set to “Part Payment Plan”.
2. New Timeline Inherited (Both Views): The case instantly inherits a new, distinct timeline defined by the Part Payment Plan itself. This new timeline replaces the standard collection steps with a sequence of scheduled installment due dates.
3. Client Visibility:
   • The client’s Collection View displays the new status and a visual tracker showing the total number of installments and which payments have been successfully made to date.
   • The Operations Portal timeline for the case is updated with the new installment dates and the original timeline is suppressed until the plan is cancelled or completed.

Core Principle: While the original debt remains, the case’s immediate focus shifts entirely from debt recovery (collection) to debt servicing (installment plan), and this change is immediately reflected to all parties. If the plan is cancelled, the case status reverts to the original collection status, and the original collection timeline (and potential fees) would be resumed.

Changing the case status, and why there is no Fast Forward

Fast Forward exists on invoices only. A collection case has no Fast Forward action, so you cannot move a case ahead to a later workflow step such as enforcement that way.

At the top right of the case header there is a status selector that shows the case’s current status, for example Collection. Pick another status, for example Order to pay, and confirm the Ledger Status dialog with Update to change it. The selector is locked while the case is in enforcement. To send a case to enforcement, use Edit case, Enforcement instead.

Debt specification (final demand document)

A debt specification can be created only from a collection case. There is no such document for an invoice. To get one for an invoice:

1. Open the invoice and choose Create Collection Case, then confirm with Create. The action is offered only on an open invoice that has expired and is not already in a case. You are taken to the new case.
2. Choose Edit case, then Documents.
3. In Choose document, pick Debt specification and click Generate.

Debt specification is in the list only when the case has one.

Move collection cases to another client with a file

A file can move many collection cases to another client in one go. It is imported as a purchase file through the API (POST /collection-batches/purchase/file); there is no import screen for it in the Operations Portal. Importing needs a right, see Rights, roles and users and the rights catalogue.

• The file is a .csv or .txt file in UTF-8 with the values separated by commas.
• The first row holds the two headers collectionBatchId and newClientId. Both are required. Each following row has the case id and the id of the client that takes over the case, and both values must be filled in.
• A file separated by semicolons is read as one column and is refused with “CSV header mismatch”. Save the file as comma separated.
• A row whose case id or client id does not exist is rejected with an error on that row, and the other rows are still processed.