Employees can pull the information on their PC workstation, input and manipulate the information. The mainframe updates the information on real time and generates printed past due account receivable reports, bad debt reports, cash application reports and all kinds of management reports every morning. These printed reports are then distributed to the different departments. The paper invoices are then physically stored in large file cabinets. Employees have to manually key in the check numbers and the amount of each payment into computer to balance the deposit and then key in the invoice number from the remittance document.
Any exception has to be checked through the paper trail of remittances and checks.
Collection - most of the time when collectors called up customers on the past due invoices, the customers will ask specific questions on the related invoices and often ask the collectors for a copy of the related invoices. The collectors will then terminate the phone conversation. Go to the file room and look through all the file cabinets for a particular invoice. To retrieve a certain paper invoice sometimes may take days. After obtaining the invoices, the collectors have to make copies and either send to the customers through fax, FedEx or regular mail.