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Diagnosing PT Billing Issues and Unfunded Events

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Table of Contents:

 

 

What is the Funded/Unfunded/PT Opportunity status on an Event?

COS will show a training attendee with a either a green, red, or purple dollar sign to notify trainers and managers of 3 important pieces of information. The statuses can either be Funded (green), Session is not funded (red), or PT opportunity (purple). This can help clubs be proactive in addressing any billing issues or inform the trainer that a client needs to purchase more sessions!

Each training event does this by checking the client's Session Inventory for a session that has been paid for or comped and has yet to expire.

 

Funded Events

 

For the event to event to be considered Funded and show the green dollar sign, the client needs to have a session available that is not being used by another scheduled events. This is a good thing to see and indicates the person has sessions available to use.

 

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Session is Not Funded (Unfunded events)

Unfunded PT events can be a frustrating thing for clubs and the trainers to manage. They affect club revenue, trainer commission, and can be time-consuming to deal with. When staff come across an unfunded event there are a series of steps they can follow to determine why the event is not funded and how to address it.  Below are some common causes, troubleshooting tips and provide best practices to help avoid the situation whenever possible.

 

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Note: The 'Funded' option found in the Commission Report is slightly different than 'Funded' in the calendar. See the Commission Report [Breakdown] for more details.

 

PT Opportunity

The PT Opportunity status in an event corresponds with the PT Opportunity Follow-up Status. It's an indicator that the client is low and sessions and isn't schedule to get more in the future. This is a great indicator for a trainer or salesperson to connect with the client about purchasing more sessions to continue their training.

 

Diagnosing Unfunded Events

Generally, a session will be unfunded for a few reasons. The following steps will outline what to check to determine why an event is funded and how to correct any issues you may find.

Step 1. Verify the event is configured correctly

 

Event Type

 

The event that is scheduled on the calendar has a few key settings that help COS determine what session to use for the member. The first thing to check is the Event Type that is chosen matches the service the client has purchased.

 

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This event type determines what sessions are shown in the Services menu to be used and rendered. If the Event Type that is chosen doesn't match what the client has purchased, then the event will not be able to locate the available service and will show as unfunded. The Event Type associated with a service can be found in the Package Setup>Member Service screen. 

 

Service Drop-down

The next item to check after ensuring the event type is correct is the Service drop-down. This drop-down determines exactly what session is being used in the event. 

 

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There are 3 different options that may be seen in the Service drop down and how to address each.

 

  • Select Service - A service should be chosen from the drop-down. Once it is chosen, selecting Save Event will prompt COS to check the inventory and update the funding status.

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  • No Services Available: This means that a service that corresponds with the event type was not found in their inventory. There are a two reasons that will cause this. 

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    • Reason 1: The Event Type that is chosen does not match the event type of the service the client purchased.
      • It’s possible to accidentally schedule a client under an event type that doesn't match their service. For example, a client purchased a small group service but gets scheduled for personal training session by mistake. The calendar allows you to schedule events at your discretion. When you set up a training event or a class, Club OS will warn you if the person you’re trying to schedule does not have that service available, but it won’t prevent you from adding it to the calendar.
    • Reason 2: The client does not currently have sessions available and is not scheduled to purchase more in the future. 
      •  Move on to step 2 for tips on checking the PT inventory screen.
  • Service is Chosen: If a service is chosen and the event still shows as un-funded, move to step to 2 for tips on checking the Session Inventory.

 

Step 2. Check the Client's Session Inventory

 

Select the name of the member in the event to quickly navigate to the Club Services screen. Alternatively, you can navigate to the screen by locating the member account and choosing Club Info>Club Services option on the left sidebar of their account. Selecting the '+' to the left of the agreement(s) will display the inventory. If the client has multiple agreements, it may be necessary to review the inventory of each.

 

The Session Inventory Screen illustrates the details of units within a member service agreement. This is useful for club staff seeking to assess event funding, unit availability, past session usage and payment history.

 

Below is a detailed breakdown of the Session Inventory screen and each of it's components. If you're familiar with this screen, choose the following to jump to the next step: Step 3: Common Reasons Sessions are Unfunded


How to Access the Session Inventory Screen

To view a client's Member Service Agreements, navigate to their account and choose the Club Info> Club Services tab on their account.


Inside is a list of each agreement that the Member has purchased. To expand and view the details of a particular package, first click the ‘+’ found to the left of that package’s title.


                                          

 

This will expand the agreement and display the inventory for each agreement.

 

How to read the Session Inventory Screen 



  • Service:

    • Displays the Member Service was purchased in the agreement. The number of sessions purchased and available are for the service are found directly to the right of each service.


  • Total Units:

    • Displays the total number of units contained within the agreement. Essentially, this is all of the units they will get through the lifetime of their agreement. Within the parenthesis is the total number of units that have been made available through paid or comped invoices.

      Note: This column excludes units from voided or refunded invoices as they are removed from the session inventory.

  • Remaining Units:

    • Displays the total number of available units that have yet to be attached to a completed event. These are the sessions the client has available to use.
    • Training Events that are completed are deducted from the Funded total
      • If someone has used more sessions than they paid for, it will show 0.
    • Training Events that are scheduled on the calendar and are 'Active' or 'Confirmed' will not be deducted from this total.
  • The totals are calculated as follows:
    • Remaining Units = (Total Units in agreement) - (Completed Units + Expired Units)
    • Funded Units = (Total Units purchased + Total Units comped) - (Completed Funded Units + Expired

Note: By clicking this column's provided blue hyperlink, a pop-up window will appear. Listed inside are the units contained within the package's paid and future invoices. Paid units will display their set expiration dates. Unfunded, future units, however, can only display their expected expiration dates as each can be altered by future frozen or canceled invoices. Each service is listed in order of ascending expiration date.

  • Completed Events:

    • Displays the total number of calendar events that have been set to both a completed and chargeable status. (Ex. ‘Completed’, ‘Cancel - Charge’, or ‘No Show - Charge’) Provided within the parenthesis is the total number of Completed Events that are currently funded.

                                                       

Note: By clicking this sections provided blue hyperlink, a pop-up window will appear. Listed inside is  
each package-specific event that the Member has completed in order of ascending date and start time.
Staff can see which date an event occurred, that event’s trainer, its type, and it's funding status.
        


Occasionally, an alert might appear beneath the hyperlink warning staff of the existence of unfunded events. Details on the unfunded event(s) can be found by clicking the hyperlink.

                                                            

  • Scheduled Events: 

    • Displays the total number of calendar events that are in the Active, Confirmed, or Completed status. It's possible that an event that is in the past is left as 'Active' and shows as a 'past event'. Provided within the parenthesis is the total number of Scheduled Events that are currently funded.               

                                                        

By clicking this column’s provided blue hyperlink, a pop-up window will appear. Listed inside is each event that the client has completed in order of ascending date and start time. Staff can see which date an event occurred, that event’s trainer, its type, and whether or not it was funded.


Occasionally, an alert might appear beneath the hyperlink warning staff of the
existence of past events. These past events are scheduled before the current date and are still 'Active' or 'Confirmed'. These events can negatively impact the funding of other events. It's recommended that these events are reviewed and put into the appropriate statuses (i.e. Completed if the client attended or 'No Show' if they did not).

                                                   
                                                           

  • Expired

    • Displays the number of unused units that have since passed their expiration date.

Note: Any value higher than ‘0’ will include a hyperlink that, upon clicking, will pull up the Expired Session page. This page allows staff to extend expired units’ expiration dates to make them available to the client. Access to this is controlled by a permission and may need to be enabled. See this help center for more details on user permissions: Account Settings: Permissions [Breakdown]

 

   

 

 

Step 3: Common Reasons Sessions are Not Funded

Member has unpaid invoices

An invoice needs to be paid or comped to release the sessions for the client to use. If an invoice is showing 'Pay Now', 'Chargeback', 'Refunded' or 'Delinquent', it has not released the sessions. There are different statuses that you may see next to an invoice. 

 

Invoice Statuses

Paid

An invoice showing the Paid status next to it means the session were released and a payment of some type was recorded. It's possible that COS initiated the transaction for this and the client was debited through the platform or that the invoice was marked as a 'Cash/Check' payment. A Cash/Check payment option is used for payments taken in the club and COS will not attempt to charge the client.

 

Waiting Settlement

A payment that is processed to a checking account will show the 'Waiting Settle' status while it processes. It will show this once COS receives the initial success response from ABC Financial that the account details appear to be valid. Once this happens, the sessions are released to the client.

Keep in mind, it is possible that the payment does fail in the future and this status does not guarantee that the invoice will be successfully drafted. 

Chargeback

 account details are not valid due to a closed or incorrect account number. The second is due to a client initiated dispute regarding the transaction.

 

A Club Admin or Location Manager with access to the PT Transactions report can investigate further. This report will give details regarding why a payment is showing as chargeback. 

 

Delinquent

COS will automatically attempt an invoice 3 times on consecutive days to credit or debit card payment method. If the payment fails 3 times, the invoice will show the Delinquent status. The reason the payment is not processing can be seen in the PT Transactions report. A Club Admin or Location Manager with access to the PT Transactions report can investigate further.

 

Refunded

The Refunded status indicates that the invoice has been refunded. When a refund is processed, the initial invoice is noted as 'Refunded' and a second invoice is generated to show the processing of the refund. This second invoice will appear with a negative amount and will have the date set to when the invoice was refunded.

When an invoice is refunded, the unused sessions are removed from their inventory. If the client was expecting to be able to use the sessions that were refunded, new sessions would need to be added to their account.

 

Pay Now

 

An invoice that is has the Pay Now status has not been paid. The invoice may appear in this status in a few different situations.

 

A common reason is that the recurring payment method on the agreement is set to 'Cash/Check. An agreement with the 'Cash/Check' will not attempt to draft the invoices and the club will manually mark them as paid. If needed, the payment method on the account can be attempted when manually charging an invoice.

 

If a past invoice is now showing Delinquent or Chargeback, the automatic billing is stopped on the agreement. Until the Delinquent or Chargeback invoice is resolved, future invoices will not be attempted. A staff member can resolve it by attempting to charge the unpaid invoice again or a Club Admin can 'write-off' the invoice if you don't intended to collect on it. Once this happens, future invoices will be attempted on their scheduled date.

 

An invoice that is currently in the 'Pay Now' status will not be automatically attempted. A staff member can manually attempt to draft them by selecting Pay Now and choosing the appropriate payment method, or comp/write off the invoice as needed.

 

Member Out of sessions 

If the event has a service chosen and is still unfunded, it may be that the client no longer has sessions available to use. There are a few common reasons that this can happen.

 

Client has too many events on the calendar:

 

After reviewing a client's inventory, you may see they have sessions available but a service still isn't able to be chosen or they don't have sessions even though you expect they should. This can be caused by there being too many calendar events with the client as an attendee.

 

Each training event that exists on the calendar with a service chosen will attempt to hold a unit for use, similar to a bank holding the funds for a transaction that is processing. When the session is being held by a past of future event, it can't be used in another event. This is often seen if the client is added to a repeating event that never ends. 

 

Another thing that you may see on a client's account who has too many sessions on the calendar is that the PT inventory shows they have available sessions, but you're not able to use them. This can happen if the session is going to expire, and it's linked with an event that will happen after it's set to expire. Selecting the Remaining Units number to access the detail window will show the expiration date of the sessions.

 

To correct this, delete any events that are in the future. If it's part of a repeating event, you can delete the entire string by selecting the 'Edit this event and all future events' button at the top of the event. Once the events are removed, the inventory will start to update and any sessions that were held by the events will be made available to use. Once the event is corrected, another repeating event can be added. It's recommended to set the events to end so it correlates with the number of sessions they've purchased.

 

If a client has 10 sessions remaining, the repeating event can be set to end after 10 occurrences. This will ensure that the client is not over-scheduled.

 

Event/Payment Scheduling Gap:

 

One of the common reasons a person will outpace the number of session being released is that the person trains weekly but is billed on a monthly basis. This can cause a client to have used all of their available units shortly before the next invoice is scheduled to draft. 

 

An example would be if Carolina is set to train 1 time a week and drafts monthly on the 1st. Often, the person will be issued 4 sessions per invoice to cover the usage for a month. However, since most months are over 4 weeks a client can begin to be scheduled for events before they've paid for them near the end of the month. If a client uses 5 sessions in a calendar month, they will begin to outpace their invoice.

 

If this happens, it can cause downstream impacts that may keep the client perpetually being unfunded on the last session(s) of the month. This is because when the invoice for Carolina is paid on the 1st , it will back-fill the unfunded session on the 31st. Carolina would then only have 3 sessions to use between the 1st of the month and the next invoice dated the first of the following month. Unless action is taken, she will likely continue this trend.

 

There are 3 things a club can do to get the client caught up and back on schedule.

 

1. Ask that the client skip a week on longer months. We at COS believe that consistency in training is the key to success so we think this might be the least favorable of the options.

 

2. Sell the client a supplementary agreement to release a few sessions. If the person is out of sessions a club can issue an agreement that releases the sessions they have already used and may use until the next invoice. For example, we might want to sell Carolina from our previous example 1 extra unit to cover her on the 31st for the 5th session of the month.

 

3. Re-issue the agreement on a 'Weekly' billing cycle basis. If an admin adjusts the package setting to convert to 'Weekly' billing, it will match up with her training schedule of weekly. If a package is set to release 4 session on a billing cycle of every 4 weeks, a person's training schedule and payments will line up and not cause un-funded events.

 

The primary consideration with this change is that the clients billing dates will not be the same day each month and will fluctuate.

 

Client trained before first invoice was scheduled:

In COS, the invoices are intended to be paid before the sessions are used. It is best practice that an agreements 'Start Date' should also be on or before the client's first scheduled training event. You can see if this applies by selecting the 'Completed' events from the Session Inventory screen and comparing to the first invoice date in the list. If the first session is before the first scheduled invoice, this is likely the cause of the unfunded events.

 

In this example, we see that Carolina had 3 sessions that are used and 1 is showing as unfunded.

Carolina_Unfunded_Example.png

 

By selecting the blue "3" completed events, we can access the Completed Events Screen.

 

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As an example, Carolina is has completed sessions on the 7th, the 9th and the 12th. When reviewing her PT invoice list, we notice the first invoice is dated for the 14th. As of now, Carolina has used all of the sessions she were intended to be used from the 14th of the month to the next scheduled invoice. 

To prevent this situation, a location can sell clients extra sessions to use before their first scheduled invoice if they want to train early! In this example, we would want to issue Carolina 3 extra session at POS to cover the usage she had planned before the first invoice.

 

Overtraining:

Overtraining happens when your client is using more sessions than their agreement allows. For example, Instead of coming once a week, Carolina comes twice for 1 week. This will put her over the allotted sessions per billing cycle and will lead to unfunded events in the future.

As before, this is a good opportunity to upsell the client on a different package with more session or a supplementary agreement to get caught up.

 

Best Practices

You can prevent problems with unfunded events by following some simple best practices. Look out for calendar warnings that show unfunded events or no services available.

 

Schedule with Care

 

Staff can easily prevent overscheduling and monitor a client's schedule by using the repeating event function when scheduling. If staff schedule 1 event for each sessions they've purchased (or will purchase) it will make managing the schedule easier preventing overscheduling. 

If Carolina purchases an agreement that is scheduled to give her 16 sessions, staff can create each of the 16 events at once! When choosing the Repeats options, use After ____ Occurrences as the option and enter '16'. This will make it easier for staff to reschedule and adjust events as needed and will have a clear 'end-date' in mind for when Carolina should be approached to purchase more training. This in addition to the purple dollar sign displaying the 'PT Opportunity' status will help to to maintain a client's consistent training.

In general, staff should avoid using the repeating event option 'Never' to schedule training events. This does create a never ending series of events that may make it difficult to adjust the schedule and fund newly created events.

 

Keep Calendars Up to Date

The Calendar is one of the most important features in COS as it drives a wide range of actions in the platform. For managing the Session Inventory and trainer commission reporting, it's important that the calendar is updated daily to ensure all of the attendees in the events have had their status updated appropriately. Delays in updating the events can cause frustrations and difficulty for staff to manage their client's training and for managers and owners to verify any commission amounts in COS.

 

Each event that is on the calendar and has a service chosen in the 'Service' drop-down may hold an available unit, depending on the status of the attendee. A session can only be used in 1 event so it's important to ensure the attendee status is properly updated for each event.

Attendee Statuses

There are 8 attendee statuses that are available to be chosen for different situations. Each of these statuses, their intended use, and the impact on Session Inventory is listed below. 

 

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  • Active:
    • Active status is intended to show that the event is still scheduled to occur. The 'Active' status will hold a sessions from the inventory that can't be used in other events. If the event is in the past with this status, it's recommended that it's changed from this status to the one that corresponds with the outcome, like Completed or Cancelled. Active events in the past can prevent funding current or future events.
  • Confirmed: 
    • Generally, this is from the client replying 'Confirm' to the event reminder that was sent. Similar to the 'Active' status, this will place a hold on a unit in the inventory and should be updated after the event.  If the event is in the past with this status, it's recommended that it's changed from this status to the one that corresponds with the outcome, like Completed or Cancelled. Confirmed events in the past can prevent funding current or future events.
  • Rescheduled
    • The client has rescheduled the event and staff does not wish to charge. When using this status, staff will need to create a new event. Attendee's in this status will have a session held or used from their Session Inventory.
  • Canceled
    • The client or staff has cancelled the event by providing a notice in advance. Attendee's in this status will not have a session held or used from their Session Inventory.
  • Canceled - Charge
    • The client or staff has cancelled. This status is intended to deduct the session from the client and will render a unit from the Session Inventory.  A use-case for this may be in accordance with a 24 hour cancellation policy the location is enforcing. This status will credit commission to be tracked via the Commission Report
  • No Show
    • The client did not attend the event and notice was not provided. Attendee's in this status will not have a session held or used from their Session Inventory.
  • No Show - Charge
    • The attendee or staff has cancelled. This status is intended to deduct the session from the client and will render a unit from the Session Inventory. Similar to 'Cancel - Charge, a use-case for this may be in accordance with a policy that a 24 hour notice be provided if a client is not planning to attend an event. This status will credit commission to be tracked via the Commission Report
  • Completed
    • The attendee showed to the event. This status will deduct a session from the client's inventory and will credit commission to be tracked via the Commission Report.
      • Note: If a check-in is synced to COS from the billing provider that is within 2 hours of the event, the event will automatically be updated to 'Completed'. If all of the attendees in a particular event have a check-in on file, the event will show a 'Validated' tag to notify staff of this. The intervals of the syncs may vary for each location. Please contact our support team for more details

Note: The PIN is not a required field and is not often used. COS offers a PIN feature in the client's 'Account Settings>Security' tab that managers can configure. If set up, COS would require a PIN for the session to be manually completed by staff. 

Use Reports Regularly

There are a few reports that can be used to monitor the PT department and the training clients. If the following reports are reviewed often, staff can address any items quickly. Quickly addressing any unfunded events will help to keep the training running smoothly.

Commission Report

If a location is using the Commission Report as a tool to verify their payroll amounts, it is highly recommend to schedule this report to be sent to staff and managers daily.

Trainers and Salespeople can be given access to this report via the permissions and then schedule it to send to themselves each morning. When they do this, they will only get a copy of their details to review. By reviewing this each morning, they can verify that the previous day's activity is accurately recorded. If not, it can be addressed immediately by managers.

Admins and managers who rely on the accuracy of this report may want to verify staff are following the necessary workflows. To do this, they should be monitoring it daily as well as performing an audit before the end of each pay period. The Commission Report will not consider an event as 'Funded' and represent a commission amount if there are delays in the unit being rendered or sessions being paid for by the client. By addressing any outstanding items quickly, staff can ensure the accuracy of each pay period.

For a detailed breakdown on the Commission Report, visit this article: Commission Report

Unpaid Invoices Report

Depending on the size of a locations training department, this report should  be scheduled to send daily to managers and owners. This report's Unpaid Invoices tab outlines each invoices that hasn't been paid, comped, or written off. By reviewing it, staff can immediately investigate and address any invoices that may have failed to process, like due to insufficient fund or a now expired credit card. Additionally, this report can allow staff to watch for agreements who may have been set to 'Cash/Check' in error as the invoice will appear in this report.

For a detailed breakdown on the Unpaid Invoices Report, please visit this article: Unpaid Invoices Report

 

Employee Active Clients Report

This report gives a breakdown of each client paid for or comped sessions that have not expired. Managers can use this report to monitor some important details to ensure that upsell and resell opportunities are noticed and clients are utilizing their training.

The report has a column for the Remaining Units the person has in their inventory to use. By reviewing this, a club can watch for agreements that are low on sessions and not set to renew in the 'Renew Type' column.

Additionally, the report has a 'Next Session' column that can be referenced to ensure sessions are getting used. Clients who are regularly using sessions are more likely to renew and will attend more frequently. If a client isn't using their sessions, a club can perform follow-ups and ensure they get value from their investment!

For a detailed breakdown on the Employee Active Clients Report, please visit this article: Employee Active Client Report

Visit the Training Management section of our Help Center for more resources.

 

FAQ

 

Why cant I freeze a member's agreement?

 

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If attempting to freeze an agreement, and an error message saying 'An agreement cannot have a freeze applied or an existing freeze edited if any of its scheduled payments have been moved...', there are alternative options that can be used to stop billing.

Unfortunately, when an agreement has had a billing date changed, it is no longer eligible to be frozen. In these situations, there are two options that you can use to stop the billing.

1. You can cancel the current agreement and re-issue it to start up when they'd like to resume billing. You would do this by creating the other agreement with a start date to set when you'd like to resume billing and the 'Base Payments' set to 0.

2. Change the recurring payment method to Cash/Check which will stop automatic billing. Instead, the agreement would generate invoices that your club can manually charge in the future when the client is ready to start paying. Keep in mind, these would show as an unpaid invoice in the Unpaid Invoices report.

If you'd like, you can call us directly at (888) 619-0609 and we can review these options with you. We are available Monday through Friday 8 am - 5 pm

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