The priority of a deduction type can be configured during system administration. This priority indicates the order in which the deduction type will be processed when a payment is generated for the case. Deductions are prioritized by the organization in order of importance. For example, it may be more important to process a deduction that is used to pay housing costs than a deduction that is used to repay a liability owed to the organization.
When a new deduction type is created or updated, a sequencing function reads the priority of the new deduction type and compares it to the priorities of any previously created deduction types. Based on this comparison, the sequencing function automatically increases or decreases any existing priorities as necessary. This ensures that all existing priority settings are in sync with the new priority.
For example, there are two deduction types. The priority of the first deduction is set to 1. The priority of the second deduction is set to 2. A new deduction type is created and its priority is set to 1. The system automatically re-prioritizes the priorities of the first and second deductions. The priority of the new deduction is 1, the priority of the first deduction is 2 and the priority of the second deduction is now 3.
All deduction types have an option to automatically assign a priority to the deduction type. Using this option eliminates the need to manually enter a priority. The deduction type will automatically be assigned the next available priority by the system, that is, a priority that is not already being used by another deduction type.