When you first enter /, you normally see the / logo, which instructs you to press / or / to continue, or / to see a one page help screen. After you get past this menu, you are placed in the / / menu, which looks like this:
| Debtors |
| Events |
| Reports |
| Manual |
| Setup |
| Menus |
| Help |
From the / menu, you can create, delete, find, or edit information related to debtors. This menu is used primarily to add new debtors to the debtor database, remove debtors who are no longer being pursued, and to change debtor information when we find it is in error.
The / menu is used to keep track of incoming payments, product returns, calls, and letters; to examine the history of events for debtors, to find a particular debtor in the database, and most importantly, to automatically process pending activities. In automatic processing, / automatically searches the database of debtors to find debtors with `Next Contact' or `Next Interest' dates of today or earlier. In the `Auto Process' version, / determines what fully automatic actions are scheduled to take place, and performs those actions without user intervention. In the `Auto Call' version, pending calls to debtors are presented to the user one-at-a-time, and call scripts are processed to assist the user in making calls. In the `Auto Dispute' version, disputes are presented to the user one-at-a-time, and resolution is requested.
With the / selection, you generate, examine, and print built-in and custom reports.
With the / selection, you can manually store and fetch details of a case, send letters, and make calls. Although there may be cases where these are needed for customized letters, in most cases, these selections are not needed or advised. They are only intended for testing, maintenance, and error correction.
From the / selection, you specify the parameters that control the internal processing of collection cases. For example, you can set the delays between different actions, the rates charged for interest and late payments, thresholds for pursuing a case in different ways, company, agency, and lawyer information, and utilities if you wish to use non-standard utilities. The first time you use /, you should enter the / menu and customize the collection system by providing all of the information in each of the menu selections.
From the / menu, you change menu behavior to suit your personal taste. You can change the menu borders, the color scheme, the inter-menu subliminal messages, the sounds made when moving between menu selections, the help lines provided at the bottom of the screen, the fanciness of the menus, or the language in which the program operates (if you have the multilingual version).
The / selection provides some useful introductory information about /.
To indicate main menu selections, we put the selection name in a box. For example, / indicates the / selection from the main menu. For SubMenus, we sometimes place one selection after the other separated by /. For example, /// indicates the / selection from within the / menu.