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CITY OF LARAMIE Collection Bad Debt Policy It is the policy of the City of Laramie to pursue the collection of bad debt in a timely and efficient manner. The City of Laramie utilizes the services of American Collections Systems, Inc. (ACSI) in the collection process. This policy allows city staff the internal controls to provide accountability for their programs to taxpayers. The procedures allow accountability of governmental laws and regulations and the safeguarding of assets. Procedures of Collection: Finance receives notification from FIB bank on NSF and insufficient ACH via the mail or by personnel in Finance looking in Internet banking. Finance or Utility Billing (UB) can reverse UB NSF checks or ACH through the UB software. The NSF checks and ACH that pertains to UB is entered on the bank reconciliation spreadsheet to assist in the bank reconciliation. All other NSF checks are currently reversed with a journal entry. A $15.00 NSF fee is charged. ACSI may charge a different fee. (We need to raise this fee.) Finance will notify the Admin in charge, of the particular department, about the NSF check – this is to clarify which revenue account was credited when the check was received. Some departments may need to order a “stop services” to ensure collection or issue a warrant for arrest. The check is then sent to ACSI to start the collection process. It is important that the departments are endorsing their checks before turning them into the Finance Department. Each department has an endorsement stamp that they use on the back of every check that is processed from their department. Once the collection process has been passed on to ACSI, Finance or an authorized Admin can contact ACSI directly or can log on to their web site to track and follow up on the debt. ACSI has an online Client Web site that allows Finance and City Admins’ with authority to log on and locate the name and status of the debtor. At this web location Finance can track the times that ACSI attempted to notify or collect on the debt. The actual fees being charged and payments made toward this debt are also listed. To participate in this process, a password must be obtained and training completed for the online portion of this service.