Troubleshooting payments and voids

When you assess a fee, Civic Platform schedules the fee to be charged to the customer. If a problem occurs before you invoice (charge) a fee to the customer, you can delete the assessed fee and try assessing it again. For information on how to delete an assessed fee, see Assess fees.

When you assess and invoice a fee, it means that you have charged the fee to the customer and you require payment. If the customer has not yet paid this invoice and you discover a problem, you can void the invoice and create a new one. You can also void the assessed fee, replace it with a corrected one, and generate a new invoice. For instructions, see Void an invoiced fee.

Another approach is to apply a negative fee item. Your agency administrator must enable this feature. Civic Platform denotes a negative fee item with parentheses around the fee amount. This feature is often used when transferring a payment from one record to another. For more information on transferring a payment, see Transfer funds from one record to another.

A customer can make a payment to the agency at any time. When payment is received, Civic Platform applies it to the appropriate invoice(s) and/or application(s). If payment has been received but not applied, you have several options:

• You can apply the payment manually to the invoice.

• You can void the payment, invoice, and/or assessment if there is an error.

For instructions on how to apply a payment to an invoice, see Allocate payments. For instructions on how to void a payment, see Void a payment. For instructions on how to void an invoice and assessment, see Void an invoiced fee.

If you encounter a problem after a fee has gone through the payment process, Civic Platform provides an option to return to a step where the invoice still requires payment. If you do not want to do this, you can void everything and start all over, re-processing the fee item correctly from the beginning. Note that this entails voiding the payment, the invoice and/or the assessment.

If a customer pays an invoice but does not pay with cash, then you can refund the payment, resulting in an outstanding invoice showing that payment is due. For instructions on how to refund a payment, see Refunds.

If you decide to take a few steps back, you must void the invoice, and then you can void and replace the assessment and put it on a new invoice. Civic Platform credits the original payment back to the customer. Civic Platform does not apply or attach the payment to anything, which allows you to take this payment and apply it to another invoice.

You can handle voids and unapplied fees in Civic Platform. This allows users to view the correct amount for the fees they owe in Citizen Access.

To void or credit a fee item

1. Find and open the desired record.

2. Select the Payments tab.

3. Void the payment transaction.

   Note: The entire payment is voided and the total balance is the previously invoiced amount of all fee items.

4. Select the Fee tab.

5. Void or credit the appropriate fee item.

6. On the Payment tab, verify that the Total Balance displays the relevant fee item.

7. Pay the balance.

   Note: Verify that the fees paid balance is the same in both Citizen Access and Civic Platform.

   To verify the balances

   1. Invoice the new fee item.

   2. View the Payments tab.

      The new balance is for the newly invoiced fee item.

   3. In Citizen Access, view the Fees tab and verify that the balance due equals the newly invoiced amount.