Customer Master Modules and Features

Service Order	Custom Reports
Receivables	User Options
Plant Management	Accounting Link
Trouble Reporting	Workflow Management
Inquiry/Search	Contract Management
Carrier	Advanced Staging
E911	E-Rate
Directory	Video/Internet Audit
Capital Credits	Bill Print Image
Security/Audit	Documentation/Online Help
Credit Bureau	Other features

Service Order - The Service Order Module is the heart of Customer Master’s account maintenance system. New accounts and most account changes are made through Service Order.

Service Order includes:

Account information updates
Adding and maintaining service codes and miscellaneous charges and credits for an account, customer or network
Maintaining network information such as Telephone Directory or E-911 files

Service Order Search provides instant access to Service Orders based on status and user-defined search criteria, with sort options for results and options for advanced searching.

Service Order Classes are user-defined, providing a means for custom routing and tracking of service orders based on your process criteria.

Fully integrated with all networks, Service Orders let you manage subscriber information for Directory, E-911, Capital Credits, Security Deposit, Carrier/OCPs, and much more, all from a single interface.

Receivables - The Receivables Module features a payment matrix that gives you complete control over how payments are applied, as well as functions for payment entry, credit card processing, credit scoring, security deposits, payment history, credit management, debt write-off and delinquency management.

Payment entry options include:

Automated Bar Code scanning of customer payments
Manual payment entry of full or partial payments
User-defined payment matrix options for assigning received funds to balances for specific service types
Batch functions for multiple payment entries
Bank Collect/Automated Clearing House functionality, including automated bank files and batch creation
Lockbox file management and batch creation

Credit Card Processing is available through MACC's Application Interface and on-board processing in cooperation with MACC's clearinghouse partner, Lynk Systems.
Learn More

Credit Bureau interface capabilities let you access and retrieve credit scores with the click of a button.
Learn More

Security Deposits can be assigned to accounts through Service Orders, tracked for accrued interest subject to scheduled, user-defined interest rate changes and refunded by other charges and credits (OCCs) or check for individuals or groups.

Payment History and A/R capacity is unlimited and includes detailed aging reports and instant access to individual accounts ’payment and billing histories at the Customer Master Inquiry Screen.

Returned Checks and Charge-backs The NSF Chargeback feature provides the means to automatically charge a returned item fee and place a charge-back on the account when a check is returned.

Credit Management provides support for credit classes, detailed credit history information, and credit alerts at the account level for accounts in collection, established payment arrangements and non- sufficient funds.

Bad Debt Write-Off includes user-defined write-off categories and coordinated payments to debts written off. The automated write-off procedure streamlines write-offs for various categories of revenue.

Delinquency management is supported through a complete notice history and customized notification for specific, user-defined groups, as well as custom notice types and delinquency options for state PUC compliance; multiple forgiveness levels; account-level exemption from notice; and multiple notice types. Notices can be issued at either the account level or network level.

Plant Management - The Plant Module provides you with efficient management of all plant records, by network type, in a user-friendly environment, including:

Plant detail tracked by address
Plant tie-in to Service Order and Trouble modules
Graphical “tree ”view of outside plant orientation based on parent/child material relationships
Unlimited user-defined Plant Codes
Ability to track plant for multiple network service types
Advanced Plant searching
User-defined Plant Attributes

Trouble Reporting - Integrated with the Service Order and Plant modules, Trouble Reporting lets you manage trouble tickets efficiently from creation to clearing within any network type.

Features include:

User-defined service Priorities, Report Codes and Cause Codes
Date, time, and operator stamping of trouble tickets at creation, pick-up, clearing and follow-up
Selected service codes visible on-screen and on printed trouble tickets
User-defined questions for call takers to ask subscribers when opening a trouble ticket for an account
Unique trouble tickets for every network type
Unlimited comments and history

Inquiry/Search - Customer Master features a powerful Inquiry and Search system for locating accounts, networks and individuals for review and/or update. Customer Master's Inquiry system uses advanced query techniques to help you locate accounts based on a variety of criteria, then presents accounts information and alerts, as well as access to critical account data. While reviewing an account, you may also use the Inquiry window to jump to most other modules in Customer Master, simplifying and streamlining multiple operations on accounts from a single starting point.

Beyond the Inquiry system, use the basic and advanced Search features found throughout Customer Master to compile data for reporting or drill down to very specific results based on highly customizable data search and filtering criteria.

Carrier - Customer Master’s Carrier Module is designed for the age of Equal Access. It provides management of carrier information for all telecom services as well as import of Optional Calling Plan (OCP) files for selected carriers. Through the Carrier and Service Order modules, you can maintain IntraLATA, InterLATA and International carrier selections for accounts as well as assign OCPs to carriers to selected jurisdictions at the Network level. Carrier and OCP choices are also tracked for inactive dates and maintained in history for easy review of a customer's carrier and OCP history.

E-911 - The E-911 Reporting Module automates and guides you through the process of maintaining your E-911 information, including address entry, Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) address validation, address scrubbing and Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) file extraction and transmission. The E-911 system provides a vital lifeline for your customers, and Customer Master ’s E-911 Reporting Module helps you maintain it properly for smooth, error-free performance

Directory - The Telephone Directory Module automates and eases the preparation and maintenance of your telephone directory data. Directory information can be added to accounts during service order processing or independently. Directory file creation is user-defined, so you can create diverse, unique directories by choosing various inputs. Completed directory files can be printed, copied to disk, or transmitted electronically to your publisher. Customer Master's Directory module also provides complete support for Directory Assistance publishing.

Capital Credits - Designed for today ’s telephone cooperative, the Capital Credits Module creates and maintains patronage files based on services provided. Patronage can be apportioned based on revenue generation for service codes, and toll patronage may be based on revenue or minutes/messages. The Capital Credits Module features highly flexible allocation and disbursement processes, with a user-defined allocation matrix and disbursements to individuals or the entire eligible membership. In addition, a wide variety of database utilities—such as allocation copy, split allocation, and mass update of delinquent amounts to the capital credits module—make management of large numbers of patrons easy. Checks can be issued and managed through MACC ’s industry-leading telecommunications accounting software, Accounting Master.

Security/Audit Trail - Customer Master's onboard security system provides managers with complete access control, featuring several levels of access, from view to operational control, depending on the employee role. Administered through Microsoft® SQL Server tools, Customer Master database security is easy to set up and easy to maintain, providing increased peace of mind for users. In addition, all operations in Customer Master are time- and user-stamped for complete auditing capabilities.

Scoring credit was never easier than with Customer Master's optional Credit Bureau Interface. Our users enjoy one-click access from Customer Master to the Experian® national credit reporting bureau. The retrieved score is then compared to company tables for score rankings, and an approval or denial, along with any appropriate deposit amount, is reported to the CSR. The Credit Bureau interface is just one feature that helps make account setup in Customer Master a quick and efficient process.

Custom Reports - In addition to the vast on-board reporting capabilities of Customer Master, you can engage MACC’s Report writing specialists to create customized Customer Master reports to identify and highlight exceptional data.

Present real-time and historical information logically, according to your needs
Reports are accessible from Customer Master and updated by MACC for any database changes
Support for multiple end users of the report program
Examine trends, expose relationships and zero in on important facts

In short, you readily see and understand performance measures, relationships and trends that characterize your business and to efficiently track them over time. By transforming information into knowledge, the MACC Report Writing Service puts your data to work for your business.

User and Company Options - Customer Master provides a wide variety of User Options and preferences, as well as Company settings for screen content, required input, standardized input, and more. Taken as a whole, Customer Master's User Options comprise a customization package built right into the software. The result is complete flexibility to accommodate your office protocols and business requirements.

Accounting Link - Customer Master features a direct informational interface between MACC’s Customer Master and Accounting Master software packages, or between Customer Master and a third-party accounting system. The Customer Master/Accounting Master Interface project was the result of the need for a unified General Ledger for use in subscriber management and accounting among MACC clients using both systems. The shared GL provides the basis for automated cash receipts and journal entries for subscriber billing and payment activity, exported from Customer Master and imported by Accounting Master through the use of MACC's proprietary Application Interface protocol.

Workflow Management - Customer Master’s Workflow Management module provides for user-defined workflow management within the Service Order process. Using the Workflow Management preferences, individual users may design custom screen progressions for each Service Order Class. When the Class is selected for a Service Order, the Workflow designed by the user is activated, providing a custom flow of Service Order options for the user to complete.

The advantage to the Workflow design is that, for a given Service Order Class, the user is presented only with those Service Order screens which require input. This simplifies the Service Order process by eliminating the need to choose which Options to complete for a given Class. In addition, efficiency is increased by preventing input not required for a particular Class and by not requiring users to remember which Service Order options are applicable to each Class.

Contract Management - Create and maintain commercial quotes and contracts for service. This feature manages active contracts and expiration dates and provides related reporting for marketing purposes. Upon implementation of the contract, convert the working contract into a Service Order with one click.

Advanced Staging - Customer Master features enhanced Service Order staging for more efficient routing of open Service Orders between departments and individuals. The major features and benefits are as follows:

Basic Staging by user-defined Service Order Class provides routing to departments/individuals for completion and sign-off
With advanced staging, each user (recognized by Login ID) may access a personal Inbox to view and manage Service Orders containing a Stage assigned to the user or the user’s department.
Users may set Options dictating that Service Orders at a specified stage of completion should appear in the Inbox.
Service Orders that match the Options set by the user for display at the Inbox will automatically appear at the Inbox display when the Service Order is ready for input by the user or someone in the user’s department.

E-Rate - Customer Master supports tracking of the federal E-rate program for schools and libraries. Multiple Funding Request Numbers (FRN) may be tracked for various services, or all services may be discounted under a single FRN. FRN tracking, debiting, and reporting are supported.

Video/Internet Server Audit - Thanks to the MACC Application Interface protocol, users of Customer Master have the ability to audit participating video service vendors’ equipment and Internet RADIUS servers against the Customer Master database, providing an on-demand comparison of services being billed to Customer Master accounts with services actually deployed to the end user.

The Video Audit works by comparing user-defined values for like services recorded both at Customer Master (as USP codes assigned to active Cable TV network tiers) and at the video middleware software (as an actual video service currently active for the end user, such as HBO). The result of this comparison is a report providing information on any discrepancies between the CM database and the server with respect to Video (Cable TV) accounts.

The RADIUS Audit works by comparing values for like elements recorded both at Customer Master (as Network information for the account) and at the RADIUS server (as actual RADIUS user information providing access to Internet services). The result of this comparison is a report providing information on any discrepancies between the CM database and the server with respect to Internet accounts.

The reports for both types of audit thus provide an on-demand accounting of any services that may be billed but not deployed, and vice versa.

Bill Print Image - An optional feature, the Print Image file is retrieved along with monthly billing by the client, enabling any CSR to instantly retrieve and view an image of the customer bill. Billing images are also available for archive purposes on the DataMaster billing CD-ROM.

Documentation/Online Help - Customer Master users have access to complete documentation in both printed and online (PDF) formats, as well as a robust online Help system to aid new users, provide on-demand application help, and complete field descriptions. Each new release of Customer Master is accompanied by a detailed Update Letter, containing information and procedures on all new enhancements for the release. The user-friendly Help system is updated with each new release, and all printed/electronic documentation is kept updated and ready for download at our secure Client Pages Web site.

Other Features - In addition to the features describer here, Customer Master includes:

Account, network and Plant support for Special Circuits
LIDB/CNAM account support and Internet updates
LIS support for participating jurisdictions
Full Tax and Surcharge support
Mass Processing utilities for USOC updates across the company, line number additions or changes, Security Deposit refunds, and more
Data purge and archive utilities
Category (charge type) Balance adjustment tools, automated or manual
Automated disconnect options for non-pay delinquents
Automated reconnect options for temporary disconnects
Discounts for multiple criteria (employee, payment method)
Prior month adjustments to balances