Each policy in Simfuni has a regular payment schedule, but it's also possible to add unscheduled premium payments outside of this. There are two ways to add an ad hoc payment to a policy:
- Charge the client’s existing payment method.
- Add an external transaction to log a payment that occurred outside the Simfuni platform.
Account prerequisites:
- User permissions: Create payment on existing policy and/or Create external payment record on existing policy
Charge Client's Payment Method
When a policy is either overdue or paid annually, the functionality to take an immediate payment from a client by charging their existing payment method is enabled. You can charge a payment for either:
- The outstanding policy balance (if the premium is paid annually).
- Part of the overdue amount (if the policy is in arrears).
- The total overdue amount (if the policy is in arrears).
To schedule a payment against the client's payment method:
- In the relevant policy, click on the Actions menu and select "Add payment".
- Select "Charge client's payment method".
- The option to charge the entire outstanding balance of the policy is only enabled for policies paid annually. For overdue policies, select the overdue option and then fill in the amount the the payment should be; this can be any amount up to the full overdue balance. Here you can also add a note to the payment - this will not be visible to the client but it will display in the Payment variations section of the Partner Portal.
- Next, review the details of the payment to be charged. Check everything is correct, and confirm that the client has agreed for this payment to be made against their payment method. Click confirm to schedule the payment.
If the client's payment method is a credit card then the payment will be processed straight away. If the payment method is direct debit then the payment will be processed within 24 hours.
After you have created the payment, you can view the details in the Variations section of the policy Payments tab.
There are a few cases where the option to charge a payment against the client's payment method is disabled:
- The policy is not either in arrears or paid annually.
- The first payment hasn't been made yet, or there's no existing payment method to charge against.
- The policy has been cancelled.
- The policy is already fully paid for its current term.
- A payment is already scheduled for today.
Log an External Transaction
When an external payment has been made or received outside of the Simfuni platform, this can be logged as an external transaction on the policy. This is a useful way to make sure the policy ledger stays correct - accurately logging transactions against each policy ensures the integrity of reconciliation and reporting, and becomes especially important if the policy is reinstated in the future.
There are two types of external transactions that can be added to a policy - either a payment received externally from the client (this transaction type is only enabled if the policy is in arrears) or a refund made to the client externally.
External transactions can be added to both active and cancelled policies. See this article for more information on adding external transactions to cancelled policies to zero the closing balance.
Please note: adding an external transaction to an active policy will affect upcoming payments. This is to ensure the account stays balanced and the customer isn't over- or under- charged.
If 'payment' is selected as the external transaction type then the next scheduled payment will be lowered by the same amount, to account for the external payment the client has already made.
If 'refund' is selected as the external transaction type then the next scheduled payment will be increased by the same amount, to balance out the external refund already given to the client.
To Create an External Transaction:
- To add an external transaction, click on the policy Actions menu and select "Add payment".
- Select "External transaction".
- Choose the appropriate transaction type, the date the transaction occurred, the amount of the transaction, and add a note. This note will not be visible to the client, but it will display in the Payment variations section of the Partner Portal.
- Review the details of the transaction and click Confirm. The external payment will display in the Past or Upcoming Payments tab, depending on the recorded date of the transaction, as well as in the Variations section.
- In the Upcoming Payments section the next scheduled payment will be either increased (if it was a refund) or lowered (if it was a payment), to reflect the amount that was processed externally. This total payment amount will include transaction fees if applicable.