Online Mooring can automatically assess late fees when needed. Here are the steps to assessing the late fees the way you want:
1) Tell us how much to charge
To configure the amount that should be charged as a late fee, go to Configuration > Applications > Actions > Late Charge
If the late fee is a fixed amount, you can simply type that amount in the Fee Formula field and click Save.
If the late fee amount is more complicated than that, please contact the Online Mooring staff to set up the configuration on this page for you. We've had clients who charge different late fees at different times, who have different late fees for different types of applications, and who sometimes charge a percentage of the amount due. We can handle these complexities, and others.
2) Tell us which applications need to be charged
In general, late fees need to be assessed when an application isn't "completed" by a certain date. However, some of our clients have different ideas of it means for an application to be complete. In the most restrictive definition of "completed", the applicant needs to have submitted their application, paid all outstanding fees, provided current copies of all attachments, have a current inspection for their mooring, and all applicants have agreed to your terms and conditions. You have the flexibility to decide which of these items are needed to avoid getting a late fee.
Based on your definition, you will perform one or more searches for applications that are incomplete, and that therefore need a late fee.
For example, if you assess a late fee if the boater hasn't submitted their application and paid and submitted all attachments, you'd want to do the following searches:
- Use the
Search Application page to list applications where the status is "Renewal Incomplete". That means they haven't even submitted an application yet.
- Use the
Search Application page to list applications where the status is "Renewal Under Review" and the Payment Status is "Outstanding Balance". This means they submitted their application but haven't paid yet.
- use the
Search Application page to list applications where the status is "Renewal Under Review" and the Payment Status is "Current" and the Attachment Status is "Not Current". This means that they submitted their application and payment, but haven't provided one of the attachments.
If you also assess late fees on wait list applications, you'll need to do some searches for the wait list applications that need to have late fees assessed.
3) Tell us when to assess the late fee
If you want to assess the late fee right now, click the Action button at the bottom of the page after each of the searches you performed above, to go to the
Application Action page. Select the action called "Late Charge", leave the Fee field blank, and click Save. By leaving the Fee field blank, we will calculate the late charge based on the formula you specified above. If you enter a value in the Fee field, we will use that value instead of the results of the fee formula.
More often, you'll want to assess the late fees right after midnight on some cutoff date, based on the status of the applications at that time. Since you probably don't want to work at midnight to do that, you can set up a
Task to do this for you, and to do it every year at the same time. You'll set up a Task for each search that you did above.
When setting up a task, here are some of the key fields you'll want to set:
Trigger Type - "Annually, on a specified month and day"
Month - the number of month when you want to run the task
Day - the day of the month when you want to run the task
Task Type - "Application Action"
Action to Add - "Late Charge"
Target Type - "Applications in Search Results"
When you click Save, it'll bring you to the
Search Application page, where you'll specify the search that you want to run at the specified month and day.
4) Notify the applicant about the late fee
If you want, we can also send out an automated e-mail to the applicants letting them know when you've assessed a late fee. To do that, add a
Task.
When setting up the task, here are the key fields you'll want to set:
Trigger Type - "On application action event"
Trigger Subtype - "When Inserted"
Action - "Late Charge"
Do - "Send Email"
To - "#Applicant#"
From - "#Provider#"
Template - "Confirmation of Action", or any other template that you'd prefer.