Generating Coupons + Troubleshooting Tips

Summary: This article will show you how to generate a coupon file for a 3rd party interface or an in-house .pdf file report of the coupons, plus walk-through general troubleshooting tips for coupons.

Before generating coupons, review be sure the Association Settings are setup correctly, specifically the Coupons and Interfaces sections, to ensure the coupon files will generate correctly. Without changing the settings in the Coupons section, the coupon file will default to only sending to owners on paper preference. The file will exclude any owners on ACH and email billing preference by default unless changed in the settings. The Interface section of Association>Settings is where the Coupon Format should be selected for either In House or the applicable 3rd party service.

Be sure to check the assessment setup on the Association > Assessments page to ensure the coupons option is chosen for the charges you are generating the file for. Press the Edit button on the desired charge and change the Billing Format option to Coupons. The Coupons (Breakout 1, etc.) are used for if you would like to generate one coupon for multiple charges and break out the total. The Coupons (Combined) is used for combining all of those charges into a single combined total on the coupon. For more information on Coupon Breakouts, please review the Best Practices - Coupons Breakout article. 

In House Coupons

To begin generating the file for an association you will go to Association > Action Items and select the association for which to generate the coupon file. Then create a new action item and select "Generate Coupons" as the action type. Drill in to the Dates and Assignment tab to choose the coupon start date (below). This will be the date that the coupon file is started (i.e. 8/1/2022), or when the charge starts.

Note: Coupons can only be generated for one association at a time. 

There are no other parameters or changes needed on this action item, so once the start date is selected click Update to create the file. Once the file is generated, the action item will automatically step itself to the Review Coupons step, and the file is ready to be reviewed. Do not try to view before this as the entire file may not be ready. 

Select the green paperclip to view the file. In house coupons will print 4 coupons to a page. If using the in-house option, instead of sending to the Print Queue in Vantaca, you will simply print the file from your computer.

3rd Party Coupons

If using a 3rd party service such as SouthData or Optimal, you will follow the same steps of kicking off the Generate Coupons action item. However, in the Review Coupons step, an excel fill will generate for download in the pop-up window. The excel file is what will be sent to the 3rd party service to print the coupons. It is good practice to review the excel file to ensure there are no errors and coupon breakouts are displaying on the same row for each homeowner. 

Once you have reviewed and confirmed the information within the file, go back to the action item and step to Send Coupons, which will send it to the 3rd party service if applicable. If you need to edit the file in any way or include a cover letter, you will want to manually upload the file to the 3rd party source and then just step the action item to complete. 

Things to Know and Troubleshooting Tips:

1. For combined and breakout coupons, the Frequency, Duration, Start and End Date for the assessment rules must match for the file to generate correctly.
2. If you are utilizing a coupon printing company that uses Product Codes or Coupon Codes, they must be the same on any assessments that will use combined or breakout coupons so that they group properly.
3. There are not currently coupon options for Annual Billing as these associations are generally sending statements. However, if you need coupons for Annual Billing, simply follow the normal generation process and change the frequency column in the file that generates from "M" to "A" before submitting.
4.  Coupons will be generated for all addresses that have the "Is Mailing Address" box checked within the "Edit Contact" settings, regardless if they are primary or nonprimary. 

Process Flow

Coupon Generation CSV

Description:

A CSV file will now be generated when a Generate Homeowner Invoice action item is processed.

• The following reports will now display indications of Void and Reclass entries:
  • AccountNo
  • LastName
  • FirstName
  • MailAddress
  • MailAddress2
  • MailAddress3
  • PropAddress
  • PropAddress2
  • Included
    • Yes or No
  • Exclude Reasons
• Users will be notified of a failed generation and the Reason the generation failed

Impact:

This automatically generating log will allow you to identify the number of accounts that were included in your homeowner invoice generation.