Debt Recovery Management

The University offers 30 day credit terms to its customers.

The Collection Specialist should be proactive in debt recovery management. Reminder letters should be issued on a monthly basis. If a debt is outstanding after more than 30 days, the Collection Specialist should issue a reminder letter and follow up by telephone. A record of this action should be entered in the Conversation Notes field in PeopleSoft.

Revenue Services distributes monthly statements showing the balance of all invoices outstanding for each customer. It is the responsibility of the department to advise Revenue Services of any invoices that are in dispute and should not be included in the statement.

Concerns about debt recovery should be escalated to the Head of School/Administrative Unit.

Where follow up has been unsuccessful by the Collection Specialist, the Head of School/Administrative Unit can consider referring the debt to the Collection Agency for recovery or request the debt to be written off.

If the Head of School/Administration Unit decides to refer the debt to a debt collection agency, the request needs to be forwarded to Revenue Services to arrange the process (for debts of more than $1,000 only).

The collection agency issues a monthly statement notifying Revenue Services of any debts they are unable to recover. Once Revenue Services is satisfied the debt is non-recoverable the Department must ensure that the debt is formally written off by an approved delegated officer.

The ‘writing off’ of debt means that income previously entered into the department’s general ledger account is now taken back from the department because that debt has not materialised.

Refer to point 2.10 Debt Management in the Finance and Accounting Manual's Trade Debtors Procedures - Accounts Receivable.