Tell Me About ... Cashiering

Modified on Mon, 03 Apr 2023 at 01:42 PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview

Cashiering helps larger municipal markets with complex accounts receivable processes. 

Note: Cashiering is available if you use Permits and/or Enforcement.

Cashiering provides 4 sections:

  • Transaction Management (Permits only)
  • Drawer Setup (Permits and/or Enforcement)
  • Open New Drawer (Permits and/or Enforcement)
  • Drawer Summary (Permits and/or Enforcement)

Benefits of Implementation

Cashiering supports your organization when it:

  • Offers multiple dedicated points of sale, including stations, windows, buildings and/or staff.
  • Needs to separate mail-in / lockbox payments from in-person payments.
  • Provides reporting and realization timelines from tax and court intercept programs that differ from typical accounts payable scenarios.
  • Needs to separate deposit accounts based on multiple sources of accounts receivables.

The Details

Note: Cashiering can be used for tracking but for not processing payments.

Cashiering captures the following Enforcement transaction types:

  • single citation payments, including full and partial payments
  • bulk citation payments
  • batch payments
  • short payments
  • overpayments
  • balance transfers
  • payment plan payments
  • reversals

Each Enforcement transaction is assigned a unique Cashiering Transaction ID

  • This Transaction ID displays on the Citation Details page in the Payments card and is linked to the corresponding Drawer Session Report
  • The Transaction ID does not display on the Batch Entry page, Payment Plan page, or within the Batch Payment Report

Enforcement reversals are captured, while payment refunds are NOT captured in the Cashiering bundle. View this article to learn more about Citation Refunds and Citation Reversals. 

  • Once a payment has been reversed, it will be deleted from the Payments card on the Citation Details page.
  • Cashiering will display a reversal as a negative transaction in the corresponding Drawer Session Report. 
  • A positive Enforcement transaction may also be reversed from the Drawer Session Report. 
  • Note: Both a positive and a negative transaction for the same reversed Enforcement payment may be displayed in different Sessions, since moving each one of them independently is allowed in Cashiering.
    • The “Move” operation allowed within the drawer session allows a user to move a transaction from one drawer session to another, as long as neither drawer session has been closed.

Overpayment transfers are captured in Cashiering as two transactions, one positive and one negative.

  • The original record of overpayment will be captured as a positive transaction.
  • When the balance is transferred, a positive and a negative transaction are created to correctly reflect the movement of funds in the Drawer Session Report.
  • Example: An offender owes $50 for Citation A. The offender pays $120, which calculates to a $70 overpayment balance. This $120 would be captured as a positive transaction in Cashiering. 
  • The offender owes $100 for Citation B. $70 would transferred from Citation A to Citation B and applied as a partial payment to Citation B. Since the operator did not receive a new payment, the $70 transfer would be captured as +$70 (for the payment) and -$70 (for the transfer) transactions, the sum of which is $0.

Scenario

Citation

Amount Owed

Amount Paid

Account Balance

Citation A

$50

$120

$70

Citation B

$100

*$70 transferred from Account Balance

  • Note: This amount would be recorded as -($70) because it has been transferred (removed) from the positive Account Balance

$30

Citation B

$30

$30

$0


Enforcement transactions can be edited from the actions menu in the Drawer Session report.

  • Note: Only the Payment Method and Reference Number may be edited.

When moving Cashiering Enforcement transactions, the same rules apply to both Permits and Enforcement transactions. For more information, please refer to the Drawer Session Report section of this page.

Cashiering Components

Transaction Management (This feature is only available in Permits)

Transactions displayed on the Transaction Management page are NOT Cashiering transactions. 

The Transaction Management page allows a user to locate and manage payment-related actions within  Permits ONLY.

Note: Passport does not currently provide a similar page for Enforcement transactions.

Cashiering works in addition to both Permits and Enforcement transactions; Cashiering generates its own transactions that reflect unique transaction IDs. 

  • If you have the Permits bundle enabled without Cashiering, you will be allowed to access the Transaction Management page but not the additional Cashiering pages.

On the Transaction Management page, you can search for specific transactions by using the filters at the top of the page. Filters include:

  • Transaction ID
  • Card Tail (last 4 digits of a credit card)
  • Date Range

Once you locate the transaction you would like to view, select the transaction line item to view the transaction details. 

Each Transaction contains three primary sections: 

  • Transaction Details 
  • Payment Details
  • Permit(s) linked to this transaction. 
    • Note: You can select these permit links to navigate directly to the permit record. 

To Refund or Reverse a transaction (learn more on this page), you would select the Refund Transaction button, then make adjustments to the payment by selecting “Adjust Payment.” 

  • Refunding a transaction allows a full refund of the transaction amount. 
  • Adjust Paymentoffers additional options (Refund Directly or Reverse Payment) and allows you to specify the amount you would like to adjust.
    • Note: the system will default to the full amount available. 
    • Note: For multi-tender transactions, adjust each payment method separately. 

Refunding all or a portion of a permit record does not affect the permit's current status, active or otherwise, and will need to be updated separately. You can navigate to the Permit directly from the Transaction page to take any additional actions required.   

Refunds and Reversals are only allowed when a Drawer Session is “Open” or “In Review.”  If no drawer session is active, you will be required to initiate or join one before you can refund or reverse a transaction. Transactions are no longer added to a drawer when that session status is “Closed.”

Within a transaction, you can select the View Receipt button at the top right to send the receipt in an email or to generate the receipt in a new tab to be printed.

Drawer Setup

A Drawer represents a physical cashiering window/cash register. Drawers provide two possible statuses: Active and Deactivated. 

Drawers contain Cashiering Sessions and can be configured with specific parameters depending on how the money will be collected. These parameters include:

  • Name. Drawer name (required)
  • Description. Drawer description (optional)
  • Drawer Type
    • Note: Both types offer the same functionality.
    • Physical. Represents a physical cash drawer
    • Virtual. Represents a virtual-only drawer
  • Session Management
    • Opening Balance. The starting balance may or may not be required for each Session in this Drawer.
    • Concurrent Users. Specifies whether multiple users will be allowed to join an open Session within this Drawer.
    • Closing Method. Automatic or manual.
      • Note: Both closing methods ensure that all Sessions that are In Review status will never close automatically. Closing a Session can be done only manually by the user.
      • Automatic. The status for an open Session within this Drawer will change to the one set by the user at the daily cut-off time, either Closed or In Review.
      • Manual. An open Session within this Drawer will remain open indefinitely until the user manually changes its status, either Closed or In Review.
      • Daily Session Cut-Off Time
      • Status for Automatic Drawers

All existing Drawers, including Deactivated ones, are listed on the Drawer Setup page. Both Active and Deactivated Drawers may be edited from the Actions menu on each line, however, only Drawer Name, Description, and Type are editable. Active Drawers may also be deactivated from the same Actions menu.

Open New Session

From the list of Drawers an operator has created, they must choose a Drawer to begin a new Session.  A Session chronicles all payment activities for a drawer within a specific time period. Sessions could be one of three possible status:

  • Open. An active Session that records ongoing payment activities.
    • Note: users may join only Open Sessions.
  • In Review. A Session that has been either manually or automatically transitioned to a status in which no new activities will be recorded but adjustments to existing transactions are allowed. Transactions within In Review Sessions may be edited, moved, or reversed.
  • Closed. A Session in this status no longer records any new activities and does not allow any actions with recorded transactions. Sessions may be closed only manually.

To start a new Session, the user must select from a list of Active Drawers. Configurations of the selected Drawer will determine the new Session’s attributes, such as cut-off time, closing method, etc. All newly created Sessions will receive the Open status.

Scenario

A drawer named Daily Drawer has been configured with the following settings:

  • allow concurrent users
  • automatically cut off open Sessions at midnight
  • automatically change Sessions in the “In Review” status. 

Every time a user opens a Session in this drawer, the status will automatically change to “In Review” at 12:00AM. Once the status changes to “In Review,” users will be able to close it manually at any point.

Note: A Session can be opened and closed multiple times throughout the day, which means that multiple Sessions could exist in a single Drawer within a single day.

While navigating through Passport portal within Permits and Enforcement bundles, the current Drawer displays in the top frame.

Two available actions exist on this page:

  • The […] action button can be used to start a new Session in a different Drawer.
  • Manage Open Sessions can be used to switch to another Session that is already open.

Note: Any transaction activity performed while operating within a Session will be recorded within the current Session.

Note: To operate within Permits and Enforcement with Cashiering enabled, the user must start or join a Session. While the user can accomplish this by accessing Start New Session, the user will automatically be asked to start or join a Session when accessing Permits or Enforcement and before any transaction activity is allowed.

Session Summary

The Session Summary page provides a set of filters that allow the user to search for specific Sessions or groups of Sessions within Active Drawers. The Session Summary defaults to display all Sessions that were opened today.  

Drop-down filters at the top of the page include: 

  • Date
  • Drawer Name
  • Session Status

Results for each Session include:

  • Unique Session ID
  • Drawer Name
  • Session Status
  • Session Start Date and Time
  • Session End Date and Time
  • Current Number of Transactions
  • Net Total of Transactions
  • Number of Concurrent Users  

Selecting a row within Session Summary will take you to the Drawer Session Report page for the selected Session.

Drawer Session Report

The Drawer Session Report contains three main sections:

  • Session Summary. Lists attributes of the displayed Session.
  • Transaction Summary. Provides a revenue breakdown for the displayed Session by payment type. 
  • Transaction Details. A Dynamic list of transactions for the displayed Session that can be filtered by Payment Type, User, and/or Amount. 
    • Note: Options in this filter are limited to payment methods used in the displayed Session.
    • Transactions will always be displayed with the most recent at the top. Only 20 transactions will display at a time, although there will be an option to load more transactions, if applicable. 
      • Note: Users cannot move directly to the Permit or Citation record from this screen.

Each Drawer Session Report will also display the date and the status of the Session in the header. At the top right of the screen, the Change Session Status option displays.

Change Session Status

The […] action menu on each transaction row displays the following options:

  • Edit. Opens the Edit Transaction drawer.
    • Use this drawer to edit the Payment Method and Reference number.
  • Reverse. This action creates a negative transaction as a payment reversal record (available for non-reversed positive transactions only). This item reflects both the session balance and the citation to which the original positive payment was applied. 
    • Note: Permit transactions can be reversed/refunded only from the Transaction Management page.
    • Note: This menu item displays for both Permits and Enforcement, but it is executable for Enforcement transactions only.
  • Move. Opens the Move Transaction drawer.
    • Use this drawer to select from Open and In Review Sessions to choose a destination for the selected transaction. 
    • Transaction movement follows these rules:

From

To

Open Session

Open Session or In Review Session

In Review Session

In Review Session

Note: Transactions cannot be moved to or from Closed Sessions.

Moving a transaction affects both the originating and the destination Sessions' balances.

Each transaction that has been moved at least once displays a selectable icon. When selected, this icon opens the Session History pop-up that displays the record of all previous movements.

Send the Drawer Session Report

To receive a copy the Drawer Session Report as a PDF or CSV, select the Download button at the top right of the Drawer Session Report page. You can select from PDF or CSV.

  • Note: this report will be emailed to you.

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