BriteCore accepts manual and electronic payments. Manual payments are check, cash, or money order and electronic payments are ACH or credit card. Manual payments are entered by a user or through the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) upload method. Electronic payments are made through integration with third-party vendors.

Payments can be entered by the insured, the agent on the policy, and staff. Policyholders can enter payments in BriteApps. Agents and staff can enter payments in the Payments screen in the Agent portal, the Daily Cash Receipt screen in the Provider Administrator portal, and the Secure Checkout screen in both the Agent and Provider Administrator portals. Recurring payments can be managed on the Accounts Receivable screen. See Inbound payments table.

Table 1: Inbound payments.

When a payment is successfully made, a payment receipt in PDF format is created and attached to the policy on the policy’s Attachments screen.

When to make a payment

Throughout the lifecycle of a policy, it can have a variety of statuses. The policy status, the user entering a payment, and system settings determine if a payment can be made. When users can’t make payments, the system displays a message explaining why the user can’t make the payment. See Ability to make payments by policy status table.

Table 2: Ability to make payments by policy status.

Manual payment considerations

• You can complete manual payments in the Daily Cash Receipt screen of the Provider Administrator portal or the Payments screen of the Agent portal.
  

  Note: To complete manual payments in the Payments module of the Agent portal, you must enter the payment as a sweep payment.

• You don’t have to integrate with a third-party vendor to accept manual payments.

Electronic payment considerations

• You can complete entry of one-time electronic payments on the Secure Checkout screen of both the Provider Administrator and Agent portals.
• You can manage recurring electronic payments on the Accounts Receivable screen or the Payments screen of the Contacts module in the Provider Administrator portal.
• To accept electronic payments, third-party vendor integration is necessary.
• If an electronic payment isn’t immediately rejected by the payment vendor, BriteCore assumes the payment is valid and applies it immediately to the policy. This assumption is called payment validity, and it exists to keep policies from entering non-payment or canceling. When an electronic payment is entered, a receipt is added to the Attachments screen of the associated policy/policies, future balances are updated to reflect the payment, and future invoices update to reflect the payment.
  

  Note: If the payment is later declined, additional action is required.

• You can batch electronic payments. BriteCore’s payment integration partners allow you to define when batch settlement processes occur. Until the batch is settled, payments in BriteCore display as pending in the Payment Log and incomplete on the Accounts Receivable screen.
  

  Note: For example, if a credit card payment is entered at 10:45 a.m. CST and batch settlement doesn’t occur until 11:00 p.m. CST, the payment will appear as pending in the Payment Log and incomplete on the policy’s Accounts Receivable screen until it is settled. Once the batch is settled, the payment will display without the word pending in the Payment Log and will display as complete on the policy’s Accounts Receivable screen.

• Third-party vendors may charge a convenience fee when users make payments by credit card. When a fee is charged, the amount displays on the Secure Checkout screen and on the payment receipt.

Actions to complete for inbound payments

• Create batch payments
• Manage an existing batch
• Submit an electronic payment
• Make an ACH payment
• Make a credit card payment
• Submit a sweep payment
• Manage deposit receipts
• Mark a payment as non-sufficient funds (NSFs)
• Halt payment processing 
• Delete a payment 
• Bypass duplicate payments check 
• View payments