An Explanation of Bill Dates and Their Functions

Would like to understand what each date associated with a bill is and its effect on other programs. 

• Property Tax Billing 

• General Billing 

• Bill Dates

Seeking to understand more about dates and their impacts to improve workflows and program use. 

There are five different dates that can be associated with a bill: Bill Date, Due Date, Int Date (Interest Date), Pen Date (Penalty Date), and Last Activity Date.

• Bill Dates are mostly informational. They typically indicate the day a bill was created or printed. Some programs have a field to exclude bills with a printed date after a defined date. If the bill date on a bill is after the defined date, the bill is excluded from the program's processing or reporting. 

• Due Dates are not what is conventionally thought of as a due date. They are a trigger date that the program uses to determine if an amount is currently due. Many reports can be run using the Due now amount. These amounts are populated based on if an installment's due date is before the defined date of the report. If an installment's due date is beyond the defined report date, no amount due will show. This date also affects whether or not payment amounts automatically populate in Payment Entry. Payment Entry populates what is due if the installments due date is past the current date.

  • Please note: The 1st installment of any bill is always considered due regardless of the Bill, Due, Interest, Penalty, or Last Activity Dates. 

• Interest Dates determine when an installment on a bill should start calculating interest. The interest calculation begins on the interest date. When running bill print programs, if the interest date chosen is the actual interest date of a bill's installment or beyond the interest date, interest amounts will be included on the printed bill or exported data. 

• Penalty Dates trigger the application of penalties and fees if these routines have been setup. 

• Last Activity Date is not a user definable field. It is visible in Bill Inquiry. It is the day from which interest is calculated if there is activity on a bill. If a partial payment is made on a bill, all of the interest must be paid, held, or waived. New interest is calculated from the date of the partial payment to the effective date of the next payment. 

If additional assistance is required, please contact the appropriate support team.