The laws around collection agency practices are ever changing due to the changing ways we all communicate and do business. At PRC (Revco Solutions), we strive to stay compliant and maintain best practices — those required by law, of course, but also in terms of the top ethical standards in our field.
Annually, we audit ourselves against the PPMS principles — Professional Practice Management System® certification — 18 in total, as part of our work to remain compliant. This quarter we’re reviewing the parts of the audit, listed below. The Audit is a constant effort and continual process in which all employees engage. Our Compliance Officer, Elizabeth Benefield, leads these audits and ensures our compliance will all aspects of PPMS.
In addition to PPMS auditing, Elizabeth leads the charge in making sure all employees eligible obtain their “Professional Collection Specialist” designation from the ACA, our industry association. The previous quarter we had three more employees pass the exam and receive the designation.
The 18 principles are grouped into five main categories:
- Management Responsibility – We review the management policy, the organizational charts, job descriptions, and the authority of personnel. We also review and update the compliance risk assessment and review management review records.
- Management System – This covers the review of business plans, disaster plans, and evacuation plans, the company manual, contracts for vendors and clients. We also review hiring/termination procedures, background check procedures, new hire documents, and periodic performance evaluations. This segment also includes a review of technology standards procedures, data retention review, and a review of hardware and software assets, hardware maintenance, agreements and terms documented, and disposal of assets.
- Review of Client Issues – We review the content of the client contracts; review client issues to determine whether there was a fundamental misunderstanding of the client requirements; review contract change orders; review how various functions are informed of changes and how changes are implemented.
- Document and Data Control – This means taking a look at the system we have for archiving old documents to verify it is being completed, and we take a look at contract amendments.
- Purchasing and Control of Client and Customer Supplied Data – We review controls for purchasing items, our purchasing policy for technology assets, risk assessments, our evaluation of vendors, and contractual agreements with vendors.
If you have questions about PRC (Revco Solutions)’s compliance efforts and how they affect our efforts to collect on your behalf, please contact us.
