Follow these steps to enter a payment plan:
REMEMBER! Create the payment plan before accepting the deposit payment.
Add Payment Plan starts a new payment plan and fills in the following default information:
Once you have created a Payment Plan with these defaults you may change the Origin Date, Start Date, Payment Count, Amount Due and Deposit Amount. The End Date is computed automatically by adding the number of months indicated in the Payment Count to the Start Date. If the End Date changes the program recomputes the Current Payment List to reflect interest through the new End Date. The Amount Due can be entered manually or by checking and unchecking the Include boxes in the Current Balance List. The Balance Due is computed by subtracting the Deposit Amount from the Amount Due.
Checking the Stay box is an alternative to entering the Payment Count that forces the program to conform to the requirements of a Stay of Sale agreement. If checked it will create a payment plan with four payments, each three months apart, beginning with the month and year from the Start Date.
A Deposit Amount can be entered here so that it will be made part of the calculation of the Installment Amount and appear on the Printable Payment Plan described below. Entering the amount here does not replace creating a receipt; that needs to be done as a separate step on the Receipt Form after the payment plan is set up. Do not post the payment for the Deposit Amount before setting up the payment plan. If you do, the program will double-count the deposit amount which will reduce the Balance Due below what is actually owed. 1)
This button will add an installment record for each month starting with month and year specified in the Start Date according to the number entered in the Payment Count. If the Stay box is checked the program will create four payments, three months apart, starting with month and year specified in the Start Date.
The Create Flags button will create a Stay of Sale flag for each tax claim year that has been selected in the Current Payment List to be part of this payment plan.
This button creates a printable version of the payment plan including all payment amounts and dates. It also includes the legal wording for a Stay of Sale agreement notifying them that as long as they adhere to the agreement their property will not be taken to sale and that if they violate the agreement then will not be eligible for another one for three years.
When a tax payer brings in a payment the entering of the receipt should begin here in order to maintain a history of whether the tax payer has conformed to the terms of the payment plan. Enter the date the payment was received and the payment amount on the line corresponding to the payment being satisfied then click the Create Receipt button. This will open the Receipt Form where you can continue processing the payment as normal. If the tax payer is satisfying more that one payment at a time enter the payment information on the last one that the payment satisfies completely then click the Create Receipt button. On the preceding installments enter the date of payment but leave the amount set to zero.
Recording payments on this form is important because the program uses this information to generate Payment Plan Reminder letters for tax payers who have missed payments. These letters are available from the Reports Menu.
At some point you will need to change the Status of the Payment Plan. If the tax payer successfully finishes the payments you should change the status to Completed. If the tax payer fails to complete the plan in a timely fashion you should change the Status to Defaulted. If you replace the payment plan or for any other reason no longer need it then you should change the Status to cancelled. Only Payment Plans with a Status of Active are evaluated for Payment Plan Reminder Letters. If a Property is completely paid off the program will automatically change the Status of all Active Payment Plans to Completed.