Invoicing Late Fee Assessment
The Late Fee Assessment functionality in CIS is designed to comply with the Texas Market Rules.
- (c) Penalty on delinquent bills for electric service.
A one-time penalty not to exceed 5.0% may be charged on a delinquent bill for electric service. No such penalty shall apply to residential or small commercial Customers served by the provider of last resort (POLR), or to Customers receiving a low-income discount pursuant to the Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA) §39.903(h). The 5.0% penalty on delinquent bills may not be applied to any balance to which the penalty has already been applied. A bill issued to a state agency, as defined in the Government Code, Chapter 2251, shall be due and bear interest if overdue as provided in Chapter 2251.
Current Design:
The Late Fee Assessment service runs each night. The service looks at each Customer’s account where:- The Late Fee Flag is set to “Y” (meaning yes to allow the assessment).
- The most recent invoice that is both unpaid and past due.
Upon these occurrences, a late fee of 5% is calculated on that invoice’s unpaid balance. Once
an invoice has received a Late Fee Assessment it is flagged so that no additional
assessments can be levied against it. The Late Fee Assessment, after receiving its own
invoice ID, is associated to the invoice for which the fee was assessed, and is stored in the
Invoice Details table.
Currently there is no provision within the Late Fee Assessment process to systematically determine whether or not a Customer is a LIDA Customer prior to generating the Late Fee. So, in order to prevent the Late Fee Assessment from occurring, it is up to the Client or CIS to manually set the Late Fee Flag to N for those types of Customers in order to prevent this type of charges from being levied.
The Late Fee Reversal functionality allows the Client to reverse a Customer’s late fee at any time. If the Late Fee Reversal occurs prior to the next invoice being generated then the original Late Fee and the subsequent Late Fee Reversal net against each other for a Zero $ result on the next invoice. If the Late Fee Reversal is created after the Customer’s next invoice is generated, then the Late Fee charge shows up on the next invoice. The invoice generated after the invoice that carries the Late Fee charge has the Late Fee Reversal showing up as a credit amount.
CIS recently modified the Late Fee Assessment functionality to resolve the issues some Clients are having as a result of providing their Customers with 30 Day Terms. The Late Fee Assessment service runs each night. The service looks at each Customer’s account where the following are true:
- The Late Fee Flag is set to “Y” (meaning yes to allow the assessment)
- If the Customer’s Terms are less than 30 Days, system evaluates only the most recent invoice that is both unpaid and past due.
- If the Customer’s Terms are equal to or greater than 30 Days, the system evaluates the most recent invoice plus one additional invoice that is both unpaid and past due
Upon that occurrence, a late fee of 5% is calculated on that invoice’s unpaid balance. Once an
invoice has received a Late Fee Assessment, it is flagged so that no additional
assessments can be levied against it. The Late Fee Assessment receives its own invoice
ID, is associated to the invoice for which the fee was assessed, and is stored in the
Invoice Details table.
The Late Fee Reversal functionality allows the Client to reverse a Customer’s late fee at any time. If the Late Fee Reversal occurs prior to the next invoice being generated then the original Late Fee and the subsequent Late Fee Reversal net against each other for a Zero $ result on the next invoice. If the Late Fee Reversal is created after the Customer’s next invoice is generated, then the Late Fee charge shows up on the next invoice. The invoice generated after the invoice that carries the Late Fee charge has the Late Fee Reversal showing up as a credit amount.