Glossary of collection dates

Dates are used in various parts of the collections process. Below are descriptions of all the different dates you’ll see on individual collections and on collection batches on the Root platform.

Term	Description
`billing_day`	This is the day in the month a collection is due. Example: Every 5th day of the month.
`billing_date`	It’s the date on which the premium is intended to be collected, based on the billing day set. Example: 05 May 2024
`payment_date`	This is the date the collection will go off on the customer’s card or bank account. It’s typically the same as billing_date, but might be a day earlier or later if billing_date falls on a bank holiday or Sunday (depending on the configured rules). Example: 06 May 2024 if 05 May 2024 was a Sunday, configured rules were set to collect after the weekend.
`action_date`	This is the day the system will attempt to collect the money from the customer’s card or bank account, and is mostly the same as collection_date. With certain collection methods, such as Direct Debits or Debit Orders, it can be configured to attempt collecting a few days earlier than what the customer specified. The first day of this collection run is the action_date.
`process_date`	This is the date at which the collection provider needs to process the collection. For collection methods such as Direct Debits or Debit Orders, banks need to process the collections a day or two before the intended action_date. For real-time collection methods like credit cards, this will be the same date as action_date.
`submission_date`	This is the date Root delivers the collection instruction to the collection provider. For collection methods such as Direct Debits or Debit Orders, banks don’t accept collection instructions on public holidays or Sundays. In these cases submission_date will be a day earlier than process_date, else it will be the same.