Services of Central AR

Central AR provides Harvard’s local billing units that sell services and/or goods with a state of the art billing system with which to invoice, track, and collect on their receivables. The goal of Central AR is to meet the needs of local units by providing several options for invoice processing, providing printing and mailing services for invoices and statements, participating in the collection of overdue accounts, and ensuring timely processing of all receivables transactions.

Our personalized customer service area is well versed in dealing with the Harvard community and affiliated institutions and is practiced in the collection of delinquent accounts. Central AR and the AR Product Management team work together on an ongoing basis to evaluate the system for improvements and identify new functionality desired by our users. Our customer service area provides assistance to both local units and their customers. Central AR will also work on an individual basis with local units to meet their billing and collections needs.

Central AR serves as the repository for receivables information, providing the University with accurate accounting of receivables activity. The centralized invoicing, collection, and receipt application processes reduce costs by eliminating the need for independent billing systems supported and funded by local units. Local units billing independently should consider the benefits of using Oracle Receivables:

• Income is credited immediately to local billing units when the invoice is processed.
• Customer invoices and customer statements are printed and mailed by Central AR.
• Central AR assumes printing and mailing costs.
• All transactions including payments, cancellations, and invoices are posted to the General Ledger daily.
• Billing Units have on-line access to billing, receipt, and collection information.
• Maintains a shared database of customer information and makes required address changes as necessary.
• Collection services are provided on aggregate customer balances over $500 that age to 31 days old.
• Recording of customer service and collection calls directly in the Oracle system by both local unit collectors and Central AR collectors facilitates collaboration in collecting past due invoices and resolving customer disputes.
• Customers who are paid the Harvard payroll can opt to have their charges deducted from their payroll checks.
• Oracle Receivables provides “real time” access to updated customer information.
• Local Units have the ability to produce individual invoice copies locally to assist in the resolution of customer inquiries.
• Payments received are processed from our Lockbox, eliminating the need to deposit funds using credit vouchers.