Action Wizards

Action Wizards are an extremely powerful and dynamic way to streamline taking action on cases. You can create a single action wizard to generate a letter of demand, update its status, add a notation to the case, charge the client for the action, add charges to the debtor, calculate and apply interest, send email and SMS notifications, produce legal precedents and much much more, all at the click of a button.

Charging your client and the debtor will typically be done within an action. For example, if you charge $50 for a letter of demand, the action wizard that generates the letter should also generate the charge. So creating charge codes and linking them to your actions is crucial to your productivity.

Each Charge Code must be linked to a Transaction Type. DebtCol comes with a comprehensive set of transaction types to choose from. So much so that you ought never need to create new ones. A transaction type defines financials in a more broad sense, while a charge code is quite specific.

For example you will have a transaction type for “Court Fees”. But there are different kinds of Court Fees such as “Court Fee on Claim” and “Court Fee on Judgment” etc.

Charge Codes can take some time to setup because there are so many different ways to arrive at an amount to charge. For example, a letter of demand may be a flat fee, while a Court Fee is often determined by a scale based on the amount the debtor owes, but Service Fees are often based on who the debtor is (Person or non-person/company). Some Court Fees are also determined by who the client is.

Once they are setup and linked to the Action Wizard, the operator will run the action on the case and DebtCol will determine the charge based on the variables specific to that case.

This takes the thinking out of the equation for the operator, meaning they can get through their cases more efficiently and error free.

Tools > Workflow Setup > Action Wizards

Action Wizards are standard work processes which apply to more than one debtor. An action wizard enables you to perform multiple functions within the one action such as:-

  1. Generating a mail merge letter
  2. Charge the debtor
  3. Charge the Client
  4. Run a pre-stored command
  5. Notate case manager
  6. Send an Email Template
  7. Send an SMS Template

These actions are then executed from within the Case Manager, by selecting the appropriate action button.


Creating a new Action wizard/shortcut for the Case Manager

An action wizard code must be unique. Enter your new action wizard code in the "Code" field. This is a short name used to both easily identify and generate the action within the Case Manager. I.e. Initial Letter of Demand becomes 1DEM.

Describe the action in the field labeled “Description”.

Choose the most suitable classification from the list. Note: The classification relates directly to the action buttons of the same name on the Case Manager.

“Privilege Level” - This determines who this action is available to. Refer to privilege levels in the section of the manual that refers to setting up users.

To make the action available as an initial action, tick the field labeled “Initial Action”. An initial action can be assigned to a client so that each new debt loaded for that client can automatically have the initial action executed against it.

Tick the field labeled “Allow for Closed Files” if the action can be run on closed files.

Tick the field labeled “Predict Costs” if the action is to be used to predict what future costs might be. Please note that any charge codes used within an action tagged for predicted costs will not actually charge but instead use the charge codes to calculate the predicted costs.

Inside the frame labeled “Action Steps” you will find a table. Within the table you can select a charge code, document, instruct the document to prompt the user for dispatch options and set the number of days to diary ahead. Use the table controls to add new rows, delete rows, insert rows above the selected row or simply move between pages for viewing.


The table footer also shows the total number of rows, which row you currently have selected and how many pages in total.


While you have a row selected, the fields directly below the table relate to that row. Here you can nominate an email or sms template to be sent.

IMPORTANT: Be sure the days delay is specified on the last row; unless you wish to perform the action in multiple parts on different days.

In the table next to the charge codes and document select boxes you will see an edit button. Click it to edit the respective charge code, document or command.

If a command allows you to set a variable, the command variable combo box will be enabled. Here you can select from a list of valid variables, or input your own.

For example:- The command to set the diary date will not contain a list of pre-determined options so that you can specify your own, or leave blank allowing the operator to enter what they like at run-time. However the command to set the status will have a list of pre-determined status codes so you may select one from the list. If you choose to leave the command variable blank then the user will be prompted to choose at the time of running the action.

If you want the user to decide which party a document should go to and/or how to dispatch it, simply tick the check box labeled “dispatch prompt” next to the selected document. At the time of running the action the user will be prompted to select the party to receive the letter and how it should be dispatched.

Each document dispatched from DebtCol will be stored as a viewable PDF in the Case History.

Advanced Settings

Set rules and conditions around the action in advanced settings.


Nominate the suggested next action code. This can be used by the batch update tools to actually run the suggested next action if instructed.

Entering suggested next steps into the text area labeled “Suggested Next Step Text” will alert the user when the action is complete on or after the next due date if the user security settings allow suggested next step alerts. Here you can be very specific about what the user needs to do. i.e. “Click the Debtor Actions button and run the 7 days reminder notice.

If you would like the system to automatically run another action after a certain number of days, select the action from the list under “Run Next Action” and nominate the number of days in the field labeled “Run After # Days Delay”. When the number of days is reached and the case is still open, has a balance to pursue and has not had another action run in between time, then this next action will be executed.

IMPORTANT: The Mass Processing Scheduler must be run daily in order to execute next step actions.

Click “Save” on the Action Bar to save your new action.

Advanced Settings - Operator Security for actions

Each action code can be assigned implicitly to an operator or a range of operators. Operators can also be disallowed access to specific action codes.

If the action is to be exclusively available to certain operators, select these operators from the list in the table labeled “Exclusive Use By”.

If the action is to be made available to most operators but to be excluded for some, selected the operators not allowed access from the table labeled “Operators Not Allowed”.

Advanced Settings - Client Security for actions

Each action code can be allowed exclusively for debts belonging to specific clients. Actions can be disallowed on debts belonging to certain clients.

If the action is to be exclusively available to certain clients, enter the client code(s) into the table labeled “Exclusive To Client”.

If the action is to be made available to most clients but to be excluded for some, selected the client(s) not allowed access from the table labeled “Clients Not Allowed”.