How to make payment arranges with a customers?

It's common to use the Juice system to collect legacy consumer arrears, in fact reducing accounts receivable is the key driver for PAYG ROI. For example, it's not unusual for a postpaid customer to be two, three or more months in arrears when they migrate to PAYG.

There are two approaches used in PAYG to collect these outstanding balances. The standard within the PAYG industry is to use a percentage of payment basis for collection vs. the traditional amortization schedule. The reason is that by setting a reasonable percentage, customers will always be able to get some energy credit and keep the lights on. This is critical because it keeps the incentive for the customer to Top-Up, even if they only have a small amount of money. Alternatively, some utility policies require the use of fixed amortization schedules. In these cases the customer most pay off the full monthly amount due before they get any energy credit.

The mechanics of setting up each type are below:

1. Percentage Top-Up Collection

Each arrears has a designated collection percentage. This is the amount which is recovered from each future top-up.

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  1. Set the type of arrears. The available types are client defined.
  2. The payment plan is the percentage of each Top-Up that is applied to the arrears balance. In the case above, 20% of each future Top-Up will go towards arrears. In rough terms, this would mean a customer transferring a month of charges would pay off the balance over about five months.
  3. The start date will default to the current date, meaning the collection begins immediately.
  4. The initial amount of the balance being added to PAYG.

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2. Amortized Schedule

Alternatively, a utility may elect to stagger the collection of a number of months similar to an amortization table. For example, a customer has a $400 total outstanding balance and it's desired to collect this over four months in specific installments to mimic an amortization.

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  1. The percentage would be set to 100% collection, meaning the arrears has to be paid off before any energy credit is given.
  2. The start date is set for each future due date.

The results in four arrears, due on the 15th of each of the following months. The customer has to pay off the entire amount due each month. So long as the amount is not a large burden for the customer, this can be an adequate way to collect arrears.