Common Errors & Issue Monthly Penalty Interest Not Correct

Scenario: You are applying your monthly penalty and/or interest and you notice the amounts do not look correct on 1 or many records.

Most penalty or interest errors occur the first time they are applied or after a user has manually adjusted a charge line.  To qualify for the Bulk penalty/interest process a charge line must have a balance (Gross>0) AND the past due date must be less than the day you run the bulk penalty/interest process.  DO NOT APPLY THE PENALTY/INTEREST IF YOU THINK IT IS INCORRECT.

Check the following items:

If this is the first time the penalty or interest should appear and it doesn’t:

• Check the rate code and make sure in the penalty and/or interest sections that a formula like B has been selected, a rate is entered, the Maximum is like 9999999.99 and the frequency is not 0.  The frequency is usually 1 for a penalty and U for interest.

• Check the Past Due Date on the charge lines

• Check the Penalty Counter and Next Penalty Date, Interest counter, and Next Interest Date.  If penalty or interest has never been applied then these fields should be zero and no date.  If they have a number on the counter and a date like 2/1/2023. Then that means that the charge line has already processed the penalty or interest.  You can clear these fields to reset the charge line to allow it to qualify for penalty/interest.

• If the Next penalty date or Next interest dates have a date like 2/1/2023 then that is the next time that charge line will qualify for more penalty/interest if appropriate.

If the amount looks incorrect on the penalty or interest:

• Ask yourself what looks incorrect.  The system takes what is already on the PIDN charge.  Then calculates the next penalty/interest amount for that month.  Finally, it adds one month's worth to the existing amount and restates the new Gross amount due. So is the current amount on the charge line wrong or is the amount calculated for this month incorrect?

• Check the rate code and make sure in the penalty and/or interest sections that a formula like B has been selected, a rate is entered, the Maximum is like 9999999.99 and the frequency is not 0.  The frequency is usually 1 for a penalty and U for interest.

• If you converted data or received any partial payments on a charge line then you may want to calculate that charge by hand to compare the difference.  iGov only calculates 1 month's worth so if the initial amount was wrong, you would do an admin adjustment to enter a good starting penalty/interest amount.

If the above instructions do not solve your issue then contact support and the ticket will be elevated.

Version 5.0 of iGovServices 

Last updated on: 12/16/2022

Updated by: CS